^''^  % 


/A  ff^^ipffj 


^'  /1Xpi^(^e/\ 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/cathedralcitiesoOOmarsrich 


CATHEDRAL    CITIES 
OF    FRANCE 


I 


«■     c       <  c 


ABBEVILLE 


CATHEDRAL  CITIES 
OF  FRANCE 

BY 

HERBERT  MARSHALL,  R.W.S. 

AND 

HESTER  MARSHALL 

WITH  FORTY-EIGHT  ILLUSTRATIONS 
BY  HERBERT  MARSHALL,  R.W.S. 


NEW  YORK 

DODD,  MEAD  &  COMPANY 

1919 


^N*^ 


v^^ 


Copyright,  1907,   by 
DODD,  MEAD  &  COMPANY 


(    «    .(    c       * 


NOTE 

The  following  chapters  are  the  result  of  notes  put 
together  during  summers  spent  in  France  in  the 
course  of  the  last  five  years.  They  are  not  intended 
to  mark  out  any  particular  geographical  scheme, 
though  considered  as  isolated  suggestions  they  may 
possibly  prove  useful  to  the  intending  traveller;  nor 
do  they  aim  at  covering  all  the  Cathedral  cities  of 
France. 

The  authors  are  indebted  for  much  valuable  help 
from  the  following  books :  Viollet-le-Duc's  *^  Dic- 
tionnaire  de  FArchitecture " ;  Mr.  Phene  Spiers's 
"  Architecture  East  and  West ";  Mr.  Francis  Bond's 
"Gothic  Architecture  in  England";  Mr.  Henry 
James's  "  Little  Tour  in  France  ";  Mr.  Cecil  Head- 
lam's  "  Story  of  Chartres ";  Freeman's  "  History  of 
the  Norman  Conquest "  and  "  Sketches  of  French 
Travel";  Dr.  Whewell's  "Notes  on  a  Tour  in 
Picardy  and  Normandy";  M.  Guilhermy's  "  Itin- 
eraire  archeologique  de  Paris";  M.  Hoffbauer's 
"  Paris  a  travers  les  ages " ;  M.  Enlart's  "  Archi- 
tecture Religieuse";  Mr.  Walter  Lonergan's  "  His- 
toric Churches  of  Paris";  the  "Chronicles"  of 
Froissart  and  Monstrelet;  and  to  the  letters  in  The 
Times  of  its  war  correspondent,  1870  and  1871. 

H.  M.  M.  and  H.  M. 

[v] 


^14235 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

I  A  French  Cathedral  City 

II  Boulogne  to  Amiens    . 

III  LAoN,  Rheims,  and  Soissons 

IV  Rouen 
V  Evreux  and  Lisieux 

VI   Bayeux 

VII   St.  L6  and  Coutances 
VIII   Le  Mans      . 
IX  Angers 
X   Tours  and  Blois  . 
XI   Chartres 
XII   Orleans,  Bourges,  and  Nevers 

XIII  MouLiNS^  Limoges,  and  Perigueux 

XIV  Angouleme  and  Poitiers 
XV   La  Rochelle  and  Bordeaux 

XVI   Sens,  Auxerre,  and  Troyes  . 
XVII   Meaux,  Senlis,  and  Beauvais 
XVIII   Paris  and  Some  of  its  Churches 


PAGE 

I 

9 

24 
40 
60 
70 
90 

105 

117. 

127 

141 

152 

167 

181 

191 

203 

220 

238 


[vii] 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Abbeville      . 

• 

Frontispiece 

St.  Martin,  Laon  . 

•         • 

Facing  Page 

2 

The  Quayside,  Amiens 

•         • 

« 

({ 

4 

A  Street  in  Perigueux  . 

,         , 

u 

i( 

6 

The  Porte  Gayole,  Boulogne  , 

•         • 

II 

(1 

10 

The    Place   Vogel,    Amiens    . 

,         , 

II 

II 

i8 

The  Ramparts,  Laon 

•         • 

II 

II 

28 

Rheims         .          .          .         . 

•         • 

II 

II 

36 

Soissons        .          .          .          . 

•         • 

II 

II 

38 

Rue  de  THorloge,   Rouen 

•         • 

II 

II 

54 

Rue  St.   Romain,    Rouen 

•         • 

II 

II 

58 

The  Towers  of  Evreux 

, 

II 

II 

66 

St.   Jacques,   Lisieux 

,         , 

II 

II 

68 

A  Street   Corner,    Bayeux 

,         , 

II 

II 

76 

The  Cathedral  Front,  St.  L6 

»         . 

(( 

II 

94 

The  South  Porch  of  the  Cath( 

sdral,  Coutances 

(I 

II 

102 

St.  Pierre,  Coutances     . 

.          , 

11 

II 

106 

Le  Mans     .          .          .          . 

,         , 

II 

l< 

no 

Notre  Dame  de  la  Couture,  L 

e  Mans 

II 

II 

114 

Angers         .          .          .          . 

,         , 

II 

<• 

124 

Tour  de  THorloge,  Tours     . 

,         , 

II 

<l 

130 

St,  Gaf'eu,  Tours 

,         , 

II 

IC 

132 

Blois 

,         ^ 

II 

« 

136 

Chartres   from   the    North 

,         ^ 

II 

M 

142 

Rue  de  la  Porte  Guillaume,  C 

lartres 

II 

If 

148 

Orleans        .          .          .          . 

. 

IC 

U 

154 

The  House  of  Jacques  Coeur, 

Bourges     • 

l< 

IC 

156 

Bourges        .          .          .          . 

,         , 

II 

CI 

158 

The  Musee  Cujas,  Bourges     . 

•         • 

<» 

<• 

160 

The  H6tel-de-Ville,  Nevers      . 

, 

4* 

U 

162 

L 

ixj 

ILLUSTRATIONS 


The  Port  du  Croux,  Nevers 

Moulins 

Perigueux  from  the  River 

St.  Front,  Perigueux 

Poitiers 

Entrance  to  the  Harbour,  La  Rochellc 

The   Harbour  of  La  Rochelle 

Sens    ...... 

St.  Germain,  Auxerre     . 

The  Bridge  and  Cathedral,  Auxerre 

A  Street  in  Troyes 

Meaux 

The  Old  Mills  at  Meaux     . 

Senlis    .      .         .         .         ^         . 

The  Pont,  Marie,  Paris 

Notre  Dame,  Paris 

St.  Germain  des  Pres,  Paris 

Pont  St.  Michel  and  Ste.  Chapelle,  Paris 


Facing  Page 

164 

u 

II 

170 

«( 

II 

176 

<l 

a 

178 

« 

II 

186 

(1 

II 

192 

<( 

II 

194 

<( 

II 

206 

« 

II 

208 

u 

II 

210 

fl 

II 

214 

(1 

II 

222 

II 

i( 

224 

II 

II 

230 

II 

II 

240 

II 

11 

254 

ti 

II 

258 

(1 

II 

262 

[»1 


A   FRENCH    CATHEDRAL   CITY 

MJ^p^HERE  are  in  France  to-day  three  distinct 
M  C|  classes  of  cities — one  might  even  add,  of 
^^^^/  cathedral  cities — and  as  the  bishopric  is  a 
dignity  far  more  usual  in  France  than  in 
England,  "  cathedral "  may  serve  for  the  present  as 
a  term  inclusive  of  many  towns. 

Firstly,  there  is  the  town  whose  local  importance 
has  remained  unchanged  through  a  succession  of 
centuries  and  an  eventful  history,  which  has  added  a 
modern  importance  to  that  bequeathed  to  it  by  Time. 
Such  towns  are  Le  Mans,  Angers,  Amiens  and 
Rouen.  Secondly,  we  find  the  towns  whose  glory 
has  departed,  but  who  still  preserve  the  outward 
semblance  of  that  glory,  though  they  remind  us  in 
passing  through  them  of  a  body  without  a  spirit,  of 
an  empty  house,  whose  inhabitants  are  long  dead  and 
have  left  behind  them  only  the  echoes  of  their  past 
footsteps.  These  towns  are  a  picturesque  group,  and 
if  we  go  back  upon  the  centuries,  we  shall  find  in 

[I] 


•  •  •  •  • 


/•\:€AirHeDRAi:'*CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

them  the  centre  of  much  that  has  made  history  for 
our  modern  eyes  to  read.  Look  at  Chartres  and 
Bayeux,  and  Laon  and  Troyes,  for  embodiments  of 
this  type.  And  lastly,  there  are  the  cities  which 
exactly  reverse  the  foregoing  state  of  affairs,  and  owe 
their  growth  to  the  kindly  fostering  of  a  later  age — 
an  age  which  has  learnt  wisdom  more  quickly  than 
its  predecessors,  and  has  learnt,  moreover,  to  love 
the  whirr  of  engines  and  the  busy  paths  of  commerce 
more  than  the  safe  keeping  of  ancient  monuments 
and  the  reading  of  history  in  the  worn  greyness  of 
their  stones.  Among  these  we  may  count  Havre; 
but  of  this  class  it  is  more  difficult  to  find  examples 
in  France,  although  in  England  the  north  country  is 
thick  with  such  mushroom  cities. 

The  history  of  the  growth  of  one  Gaulish  town 
may  easily  serve  for  that  of  another:  later  days  de- 
cided its  continued  importance  or  its  gradual  decay, 
as  the  case  might  be ;  and,  as  Freeman  points  out  in 
his  essay  upon  French  and  English  towns,  "  the  map 
of  Roman  Gaul  survives,  with  but  few  and  those 
simple  changes  in  the  ecclesiastical  map  of  France 
down  to  the  great  Revolution."  Thus  the  history  of 
these  cities  affected  themselves  alone  and  not,  to  any 
great  extent,  the  lands  in  which  they  stood.  It  is  a 
salient  testimony  to  the  lasting  influence  of  ancient 
Gaul  that  in  most  town-names  some  trace  can  be 

[2] 


> , '  /  5 


»  >  >  > ,  J      > » 


>     ,  ' .  1   » '  '  >    >  > 


ST.  MARTIN,  LAON 


A   FRENCH    CATHEDRAL   CITY 

found  of  the  old  name,  either  of  the  tribe  which  in- 
habited it,  or  of  the  territory  belonging  to  that  tribe; 
and  even  under  the  Roman  rule  the  Gallic  forms  did 
not  entirely  disappear.  Later,  when  the  Franks 
came  from  the  East,  one  would  suppose  that  they  had 
names  of  their  own  for  the  conquered  cities;  but  if 
this  were  the  case,  these  names  have  not  come  down 
to  us — all  of  which  goes  to  show  that  the  Frankish 
dominion,  though  it  lasted  on,  and  gave  to  the  land 
her  ablest  dynasty  of  kings,  had  no  real  rooted  influ- 
ence in  the  country,  and  that  France,  as  relating  to 
ancient  Gaul,  is  a  formal  and  almost  an  empty  title. 
The  Gallic  cities  owed  their  origin  in  the  earliest 
times,  naturally,  to  their  situation.  The  roving 
tribes,  looking  for  a  settlement,  would  choose  a 
camping  ground  either  on  a  rocky  hill,  where  they 
could  safely  entrench  themselves  against  a  possible 
enemy,  or  on  an  island  in  the  midst  of  a  river  or 
marsh,  where  the  surrounding  fens  would  be  an 
efficient  safeguard;  and  it  speaks  well  for  their 
choice,  that  when  the  Romans  came,  skilled  in  the 
knowledge  of  war,  offensive  and  defensive,  they  did 
not  destroy  the  settlements  of  the  conquered  tribes, 
but  rebuilt  and  fortified  them  according  to  the 
inimitable  pattern  of  Rome,  not  effacing  but  im- 
proving what  was  already  to  hand.  Instead  of  the 
rude  Gallic  huts,  stately  palaces  rose  up,  with  their 

[3  J 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

marble  baths;  aqueducts  threw  a  succession  of 
arches  to  the  nearest  water  source,  theatres  sloped 
up  the  hill-side,  bridges  crossed  the  river,  and  where 
the  grottoes  of  the  Druidic  or  other  primitive  faiths 
had  been,  rose  the  columns  and  friezes  of  splendid 
temples  to  Jupiter  and  Diana  and  Apollo.  Certainly 
it  was  a  change  for  the  better;  and  the  appearance 
of  many  of  these  towns  under  the  Caesars  was 
probably  much  more  imposing,  though  perhaps  less 
picturesque,  than  that  which  they  presented  in 
mediaeval  days.  In  the  later  Roman  era  a  new 
element  introduces  itself.  From  the  early  Christian 
Church  at  Rome  come  missionary  saints;  not  saints 
in  those  days,  but  often  the  poorest  and  meanest  of 
the  brethren,  charged  with  a  message  to  Gaul — 
Hilary,  Martin,  Dionysius,  and  the  others.  Fierce 
conflicts  follow,  persecutions,  burnings,  martyrdoms 
— Dionysius  bears  witness  at  Lutetia,  Savinian  and 
Potentian  at  Sens — and  at  last  the  first  church 
arises  within  the  city,  poor  and  meagre  very  often 
in  comparison  with  the  huge  pagan  temples  which 
it  replaces,  but  loved  and  venerated  by  the  faithful 
few,  and,  best  of  all,  the  origin  of  the  grand  cathe- 
drals which  are  now  the  glory  of  France.  "The 
votaries  of  the  new  creed  found  a  home  within  the 
walls  of  their  seats  of  worship  such  as  the  votaries 
of  the  elder  creed  had  never  found  within  theirs. 

[4  ] 


a    •  i      ^    »  *      * 


THE  QUAYSIDE,  AMIENS 


A   FRENCH    CATHEDRAL   CITY 

And  around  the  church  arose  the  dwellings  of  the 
bishop  and  his  clergy,  a  class  of  men  destined  to 
play  no  small  part  in  the  history  of  the  land."  In 
the  Christian  city,  then,  we  can  begin  to  trace  the 
beginnings  of  the  mediaeval  city.  Other  founda- 
tions sprang  up  in  time  within  the  walls — a  baptistery 
was  built,  as  at  Aix  and  Poitiers,  to  meet  the  needs 
of  the  flocks  of  converts;  other  churches  perpetuated 
the  memory  of  some  saint;  among  the  river 
meadows  some  royal  or  saintly  founder  saw  a  fitting 
spot  for  a  convent,  and  the  abbey  church  arose, 
with  its  cloisters,  dormitories  and  refectories,  and 
all  the  other  fair  buildings  in  which  the  early 
brothers  took  such  a  loving  pride.  Then  the 
bishop  himself,  with  his  dignity  growing  as  the 
Christian  faith  advanced,  must  be  housed  as  befitted 
a  deputy  of  the  Holy  See;  and  forthwith  sprang  up 
those  lordly  eveches  which  even  now  serve  to  remind 
us  of  their  ancient  beauty,  though  in  some  cases  the 
civil  arm  has  taken  them  over,  and  converted  them 
into  hotels  de  ville.  Then  came  the  barbarian 
inroads,  first  of  Vandals,  Huns,  Franks  and  the 
rest,  next  of  Normans.  These  attacked,  but  could  not 
destroy,  or  even  permanently  harm,  the  position  of 
the  city;  and  when  the  invaders  had  either  gone 
their  way  or  settled  down  in  the  land,  new  elements 
of  strength  and  importance  were  added  to  the  town- 

[5] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

ship:  castles  and  strongholds  were  built  up  for  the 
great  men  who  had  taken  possession  of  the  chief 
cities,  and  the  great  civil  or  feudal  power  of  the 
dukes  and  counts  began  to  exercise  its  jurisdiction 
side  by  side  with  the  old-established  influence  of  the 
Church.  Then,  as  was  notably  the  case  at  Le  Mans 
and  Troyes,  the  growing  commercial  importance  of 
a  town  would  force  a  communal  charter  from  the 
seigneur;  a  burgher  quarter  would  rise,  quite  as 
important  as  the  quarter  of  the  nobles  and  the 
clergy,  and  thus  the  city  would  become  trebly 
strengthened,  except,  indeed,  when,  as  was  some- 
times the  case,  one  power  resented  the  fancied 
encroachments  of  the  other  and  made  war  upon  its 
neighbours. 

This  power  within  itself  was  undoubtedly  all  to 
the  advantage  of  the  city;  but  it  was  fatal  to  the 
unity  of  the  kingdom,  since  it  cut  France  up  into 
a  mass  of  separate  states,  any  one  of  which  could, 
on  the  occasion  of  a  quarrel  with  the  sovereign — 
and  these  quarrels  were  rather  the  rule  than  the 
exception — fortify  itself  by  means  of  its  count,  its 
castle  and  its  city  walls,  and  defy  the  royal  forces  at 
its  pleasure.  While  cathedral  cities  in  England 
were  drawing  closer  and  closer  to  the  king  as  their 
head,  and  thereby  sinking  their  own  strength  in 
the   unity   of   the   Crown,    those   in    France   were 

[6] 


J  ,  '    >     J 


A  STREET  IN  PERIGUEUX 


A   FRENCH    CATHEDRAL   CITY 

striving  at  a  power  apart  from  the  Crown,  or, 
rather,  striving  to  maintain  a  power  which  the 
Crown  had  never  yet  been  able  to  incorporate 
with  itself.  Thus  a  city  of  France  has  a  much 
more  varied,  a  much  more  individual  history  than 
has  the  sister  city  in  England;  a  story  less  bound 
up  as  part  of  the  great  whole  of  the  history  of  the 
French  kingdom,  more  concentrated  within  its 
own  walls,  and  therefore  more  tangible,  if  it  be 
desired  to  study  it  irrespective  of  that  whole 
history.  This,  then,  is  the  story  of  its  growth  from 
almost  pre-historic  days.  Whether,  as  an  individual 
city,  it  flourished  after  the  Middle  Ages  had 
fortified  and  strengthened  it,  or  whether  it  fell  into 
a  state  of  quiet,  picturesque  and  peaceful  decay, 
depended  of  course  upon  particular  circumstances, 
but  enough  remains  to  make  of  the  general  history 
of  the  French  city  a  fascinating  though  almost 
inexhaustible  study,  only  surpassed  by  the  study  of 
each  town  in  its  separate  case. 

Wars  and  revolutions  have  done  their  best  to 
destroy  what  Time  had  kindly  tried  to  preserve  for 
our  delight;  nevertheless,  a  cathedral  town  in 
France  of  to-day  is  a  very  pleasant  place,  and  offers 
exceptional  opportunity  for  the  study  of  French 
life  in  almost  every  aspect.  Our  business  here, 
however,  is  with  the  cathedrals  and  the  historical 

[7]  . 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

side  of  the  town,  rather  than  with  the  lighter 
points  of  view;  and  such  things  as  every  traveller 
will  encounter  in  the  course  of  his  journeys,  the 
crowd  outside  the  cafes,  the  weekly  markets,  the 
festivals,  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  the  quaint  ways 
and  speech  of  the  peasant  folk  and  the  contretemps 
of  hotel  life  have  not  only  been  described  before, 
times  without  number,  but  are  such  as  will  be 
fairly  obvious  to  the  average  observer,  and,  if  he 
has  never  travelled  before,  will  come  all  the  more 
as  a  pleasant  surprise  if  he  is  left  to  find  them  out 
for  himself.  If,  as  is  more  likely  to  be  the  case  in 
this  enlightened  age,  he  is  an  experienced  traveller, 
he  will  know  them  all  by  heart,  and  perhaps  be 
inclined  to  cavil  at  having  them  set  before  him 
once  again  in  a  light  which  could  not  pretend  to 
any  novelty. 


tsj 


© 


BOULOGNE  TO  AMIENS 

OULOGNE  is  perhaps  too  near  the  start- 
ing point  to  arrest  the  outward-bound 
traveller;  he  ranks  it  with  Calais,  Dieppe, 
and  Havre,  as  a  place  to  be  passed 
through  as  quickly  as  possible;  and  the  splendid  train 
service  to  Paris  naturally  makes  him  hesitate  to  break 
his  journey  at  Boulogne.  The  general  tendency  in 
England  is  to  despise  the  French  railway  service,  and 
some  guide-books  even  now  tell  us  that  the  average 
speed  of  a  French  express  is  from  thirty-five  to 
forty-five  miles  an  hour,  also  that  the  trains  in- 
variably pass  each  other  on  the  left-hand  side.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  all  the  main  lines  follow  the  same 
rule  of  the  road  which  obtains  in  England,  and  as 
to  average  speed,  the  run  from  Calais  to  Paris  equals, 
if  it  does  not  exceed,  that  of  any  long-distance 
train-service  in  our  own  country,  covering  the 
distance  of  185  miles  at  the  rate  of  fifty-six  miles 
an  hour. 

i[9i 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

As  a  seaport  and  fishing  centre,  Boulogne  is  one 
of  tlie  most  interesting  and  important  towns  in 
France;  and  its  fishing-boats  sail  out  in  great 
numbers  to  the  North  Sea  for  the  cod  fishery  along 
the  north  coast  of  Scotland.  When  the  herring 
fishing  begins,  Boulogne  adds  its  contingent  to  the 
fleets  of  Cornwall,  to  the  luggers  of  the  West  Coast, 
and  to  the  cobbles  of  Whitby;  and  on  the  eve  of 
the  departure  to  the  fishing-ground,  the  fisherman's 
quarter,  known  as  La  Beuriere,  is  alive  with  the 
orgies  of  its  sailor  population.  Dancing  takes 
place  on  the  quays,  and  short  entertainments  are 
held  in  an  improvised  theatre,  while  the  rich  brown- 
ochre  sails  of  the  splendid  luggers  and  smacks  are 
stretched  from  deck  to  deck,  forming  an  awning 
under  which  the  owners  and  captains  meet  together 
with  their  friends  to  wish  success  to  the  under- 
taking of  those  who  "  go  down  to  the  sea  in  ships, 
and  occupy  their  business  in  great  waters." 

Boulogne  has  the  reputation  of  being  the  most 
Anglicised  of  French  towns,  and  was  in  years  gone 
by  often  associated  with  the  seamy  side  of  society. 
Many  a  stranger  found  here  a  convenient  refuge, 
and  Mr.  Deuceace  and  other  of  Thackeray's  heroes 
enjoyed  the  sea  breezes  of  Boulogne  after  the  mental 
strain  of  somewhat  questionable  financial  manoeuvres. 

The    city    walls,    restored    in    the    sixteenth    or 

[  lo] 


THE  PORTE  GAYOLE,  BOULOGNE 


BOULOGNE  TO  AMIENS 

seventeenth  century,  date  back  to  1231,  and  were 
built  on  the  foundations  of  the  ancient  town  of 
Bononia,  generall}^  identified  with  the  Roman 
Gesoriacum,  though  not  on  very  reliable  authority. 
From  its  position  on  the  high  grassy  cliffs  of 
Picardy,  guarding  the  little  river  Liane  and  looking 
out  over  the  waves  to  the  white  line  of  the  English 
shore,  Boulogne  in  other  days  had  an  importance 
quite  distinct  from  that  which  we  now  assign  to  it. 
The  Viking  sailing  down  the  English  Channel  saw 
it  as  one  of  the  outposts  of  a  new  and  fair  land  open 
to  the  conquest  of  fire  and  sword,  and  in  his  primi- 
tive fashion  of  asserting  the  mastery,  destroyed  the 
city  on  the  cliff.  Later  on,  these  ravages  were 
made  good  under  the  rule  of  Rolf,  the  "  Ganger," 
by  this  time  master  of  Neustria;  the  city  was 
restored  and  became  the  head  of  a  countship,  which 
dignity  it  retained  until  late  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
when  Louis  XI.  cast  envious  eyes  upon  it,  and  by 
a  stroke  of  craft  approaching  near  to  genius,  united 
It  to  the  crown  of  France,  declaring  the  Blessed 
Virgin  to  be  patroness  of  the  town  and  himself  her 
humble  vassal,  holding  it  under  her  suzerainty, 
which  no  man  in  France  dared  to  deny.  Henry  VIIT. 
laid  siege  to  Boulogne  in  1544  and  gained  it  for 
England;  but  the  day  of  English  prestige  in  France 
had  gone  by,  and  her  right  of  possession  was  of  very 

[  II  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

short  duration,  for  in  the  next  reign  Boulogne  was 
given  back  to  France,  and  Calais  alone  remained  to 
England  of  the  spoils  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War. 

Above  the  present  town  rises  the  monument 
known  as  the  "  Colonne  de  la  Grande  Armee," 
a  memorial  of  the  first  Napoleon's  encampment  at 
Boulogne  in  1804,  and  of  his  magnificent  prepara- 
tions for  the  invasion  of  England.  In  the  Chateau, 
which  dates  from  the  thirteenth  century  and  is  now 
used  as  barracks,  Napoleon  III.  was  confined  after 
his  abortive  descent  upon  the  town  in  1840.  It 
was  the  second  of  these  desperate  attempts  to 
dethrone  the  "  constitutional  king "  Louis  Philippe 
and  reinstate  the  Imperial  dynasty.  The  expedition 
to  Strasburg  four  years  before  had  at  least  been 
attended  by  this  much  success,  that  the  young 
aspirant  was  enthusiastically  welcomed  by  the  mili- 
tary portion  of  the  population;  but  the  descent 
upon  Boulogne,  planned  at  the  time  when  the  body 
of  the  first  Emperor  was  being  brought  from  St. 
Helena  to  Paris,  was  a  failure  from  first  to  last. 
The  little  band  of  conspirators,  about  fifty  in 
number,  with  their  tame  eagle — a  symbol  of  the 
Imperial  power — landed  at  the  port,  but  found  no 
adherents,  and  within  a  few  hours  of  their  landing 
were  under  arrest.  Napoleon  himself  underwent 
trial  before  the  Chamber  of  Peers,  and  after  a  short 

-  [   J2    ] 


BOULOGNE   TO   AMIENS 

imprisonment,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  Chateau, 
was  sent  to  the  castle  of  Ham-sur-Somme. 

Three  out  of  the  four  original  gates  of  the  ancient 
city  still  remain,  notably  the  Porte  Gayole,  the 
rooms  in  whose  flanking  towers  were  at  one  time 
used  as  prisons.  In  the  room  above  the  gateway 
were  formerly  held  the  meetings  of  the  Guyale, 
z  reunion  of  ancient  associations  of  merchants — 
what  would  now  be  called  a  chamber  of  commerce 
— and  from  this  the  gate-house  was  called  Porte 
Gayole. 

Of  the  cathedral  at  Boulogne  it  is  difficult  to 
speak  with  any  enthusiasm.  It  stands  as  a  memo- 
rial of  the  Renaissance  work  of  that  period  which 
we  should  call  early  Victorian;  but  like  so  many 
modern  churches,  it  possesses  an  ancient  crypt,  part 
of  which  belongs  to  the  twelfth  century,  showing 
that  the  foundations  at  least  are  those  of  a  Gothic 
church,  which  was  probably  destroyed  during  the 
Revolution. 

On  the  journey  to  Amiens  the  train  passes 
through  Abbeville  on  the  Somme,  a  place  some 
sixty  years  ago  sacred  to  geologists,  who,  led  by  the 
distinguished  Boucher  de  Perthes,  Prestwick  and 
Evans,  extracted  from  the  river  bed  and  neighbour- 
ing peat  and  undisturbed  gravels,  not  only  remains 
of  beaver,  bear,  &c.,  but  also  innumerable  hand- 

[  13  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

fashioned  flints  and  stone  hatchets,  and  made  the 
valley  of  the  Somme  up  to  Amiens  and  St.  Acheul 
classic  ground  to  the  antiquary  and  an  object  of 
pilgrimage  to  the  student  of  pre-historic  man. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  Frank  kings  this  quiet 
little  town  upon  the  Somme  had  acquired  enough 
importance  for  fortification,  and  its  city  walls  were 
built  by  Hugh  Capet.  Later  on,  after  Peter  the 
Hermit  had  lifted  up  his  voice  in  Europe,  and 
every  man  who  called  himself  a  true  warrior  turned 
his  face  eastward  to  Palestine,  Abbeville  was 
destined  to  play  her  part  in  the  affairs  of  the 
great  world  outside  her  walls,  and  to  share  in  the 
fortunes  of  that  company  of  men  whose  watch- 
word was  "  Jerusalem."  In  the  first  two  Crusades, 
when  the  crusading  spirit  was  as  yet  ardent  and 
pure  and  had  not  degenerated  into  a  desire  for 
plunder  and  rapine,  the  leaders  met  within  the 
gates  of  Abbeville  before  setting  out  to  the  Holy 
Land. 

One  can  well  imagine  the  stir  their  pres- 
ence made  within  the  quiet  precincts  of  the  little 
town,  the  excitement  of  the  townfolk,  the  eager 
crowding  of  the  youth  of  the  place  around  the 
standards  of  these  great  chiefs,  Godfrey  de  Bouillon, 
destined  to  become  king  of  Jerusalem;  dark,  pas- 
sionate   Robert   of   Normandy,    son    of    the    Con- 

[  M  ] 


BOULOGNE  TO  AMIENS 

queror;  Hugh  of  Vermandois,  brother  to  the 
King  of  France;  Stephen  of  Blois;  Raymond  of 
Toulouse;  Robert  of  Flanders,  he  who  was  called 
the  "Sword  and  Lance  of  the  Christians";  and, 
lastly,  Tancred  the  chivalrous,  the  very  embodi- 
ment of  the  spirit  of  the  crusaders — and  a  "  very 
perfect,  gentle  knight." 

For  nearly  two  hundred  years  the  English  ruled 
Abbeville.  When,  in  1272,  Eleanor  of  Castile  was 
married  to  Prince  Edward,  afterwards  Edward  L, 
the  town  was  included  in  the  estates  which  she 
brought  to  England  as  her  dowry;  and  being  near 
the  sea  coast,  and  consequently  within  easy  reach  of 
England,  its  new  lords  were  able  to  retain  their 
hold  upon  the  city  even  after  the  disastrous  close 
of  the  Hundred  Years'  War  had  given  almost 
every  English  conquest  back  to  France.  Towards 
the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  it  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  Burgundian  party,  but  the  French 
crown  finally  reclaimed  it  in  1477.  Since  that 
time  it  has  twice  seen  an  international  alliance 
concluded  within  its  gates.  In  15 14,  Anne  of 
Brittany,  the  wife  of  Louis  XII.— "  Pater  Patria" 
— died  without  having  an  heir  in  the  direct  line, 
and  her  husband,  unwilling  that  the  crown  should 
go  to  Frangois  d'Angouleme,  determined  to  take 
another  wife,  and  made  advances  to  Henry  VIII. 

[  15] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

for  the  hand  of  his  beautiful  sister,  Mary  Tudor; 
and  after  the  negotiations  were  completed,  they 
were  married  at  Abbeville.  As  far  as  Louis's  pur- 
pose went,  however,  the  marriage  was  a  failure,  as 
the  King  died  a  few  months  later,  and  the  Due 
d'Angouleme,  his  son-in-law,  ascended  his  throne 
as  Frangois  I*'.  To  his  reign  belongs  the  second 
alliance  in  the  history  of  Abbeville,  the  pact  signed 
between  the  King  of  France  and  Cardinal  Wolsey, 
on  behalf  of  Henry  VIIL,  against  the  common 
enemy,  Charles  V. — a  figure  so  commanding,  so 
infinitely  greater  than  his  contemporaries,  that 
beside  him  the  brilliancy  of  Frangois,  the  gallantry 
of  Henry,  and  the  pomp  and  magnificence  of  his 
favourite  Wolsey,  seemed  entirely  eclipsed,  and  the 
three  men  appear  almost  as  puppets,  unstable  and 
vacillating,  now  the  closest  of  friends,  and  now 
the  bitterest  of  enemies. 

Abbeville  still  maintains  many  of  the  old  pic- 
turesque landmarks  which  made  it  a  favourite 
sketching  ground  for  Prout  and  for  Ruskin.  The 
market-place  is  surrounded  by  a  number  of  houses 
with  high  pitched  gables,  coloured  in  various  tints 
of  white,  grey  and  pale  green.  Some  beautiful  draw- 
ings by  Ruskin,  executed  in  pencil  and  tint,  which 
have  lately  been  exhibited  to  the  public,  bear  testi- 
mony to  its  picturesqueness,  of  which  a  great  deal 

[  i6  ] 


BOULOGNE  TO  AMIENS 

still  remains  in  the  side  streets  and  along  the  river 
front. 

The  church  of  St.  Wolfran  is  late  Flamboyant, 
and  is  looked  upon  by  Ruskin  as  "  a  wonderful  proof 
of  the  fearlessness  of  a  living  architecture,"  for,  say 
what  one  will  of  it,  that  Flamboyant  of  France,  how- 
ever morbid,  was  as  vivid  and  intense  in  its  imagi- 
nation as  ever  any  phase  of  mortal  mind.  The  nave 
consists  of  bays  having  a  high  clerestory  and  a 
triforium  screened  by  rich  sixteenth  century  carving. 
The  ribs  of  the  vaulting  fall  sheer  down  without  im- 
posts or  break  of  any  kind.  The  low  chancel  and 
eastern  termination  of  the  church  are  unworthy  of 
the  splendid  carving  of  the  western  fagade. 

The  approach  to  Amiens  offers  no  coup  d'ceil  of 
clustering  towers  or  spires  such  as  an  English  or 
Norman  cathedral  city  usually  gives  us,  and  the 
Cathedral  itself  is  hidden  as  we  pass  into  the  heart 
of  the  town  along  the  Rue  des  Trois  Cailloux,  a 
street  which  is  said  to  follow  the  alignment  of  the 
old  city  walls.  Ruskin  advises  the  traveller,  how- 
ever short  his  time  may  be,  to  devote  it,  not  to 
the  contemplation  of  arches  and  piers  and  coloured 
glass,  but  to  the  woodwork  of  the  chancel,  which 
he  considers  the  most  beautiful  carpenter's  work 
of  the  Flamboyant  period.  Note  should  be  taken  of 
two  windows  in  the  Chapel  of  the  Cardinal  de  la 

[  17  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

Grange,  built  about  1375.  These  are  very  interest- 
ing as  foreshadowing  in  their  detail  that  style  of 
architecture — the  Flamboyant — ^which  obtained  in 
France  in  the  fifteenth  century  and  was  contem- 
poraneous with  the  English  Perpendicular. 

The  two  western  towers  look  little  more  than 
heavily  built  buttresses,  and  as  towers  are  not  very 
appropriate  in  design,  being  not  square,  but  oblong 
in  plan.  They  rise  little  above  the  ridge  line  of  the 
nave,  whose  crossing  with  the  transepts  is  marked 
by  a  beautiful  fleche^  which  Ruskin,  however,  de- 
scribes as  "  merely  the  caprice  of  a  village  car- 
penter." As  he  further  declares,  the  Cathedral  of 
Amiens  is  "  in  dignity  inferior  to  Chartres,  in  sub- 
limity to  Beauvais,  in  decorative  splendour  to 
Rheims,  and  in  loveliness  of  figure  sculpture  to 
Bourges,"  yet  it  fully  deserves  the  name  given  to  it 
by  Viollet-le-Duc— "  The  Parthenon  of  Gothic 
architecture." 

The  height  of  the  nave  and  aisles  Is,  according 
to  Mr.  Francis  Bond  in  his  book  "Gothic  Archi- 
tecture in  England,"  respectively  nearly  three  times 
their  span,  and  the  vastness  of  the  fenestration  is 
very  striking,  particularly  in  the  clerestory,  through 
whose  lower  mouldings  the  triforium  is  negotiated, 
thus  dividing  each  bay  into  two  storeys,  clerestory 
and    pier    arch,    instead   of    into    three,    clerestory 

[  18] 


en 

H-l 

< 

l-f 

o 
o 
> 

u 

< 


BOULOGNE  TO  AMIENS 

triforium  and  pier  arch.  This  gives  the  effect 
after  which  the  French  architect  strove:  one  vast 
blaze  of  light  and  colour  through  the  upper  win- 
dows, coming  not  only  from  the  clerestory,  but 
from  the  glazed  triforium  also;  the  magnificent 
deep  blue  glass  typifying  the  splendour  of  the 
heavens.  On  the  other  hand,  in  a  sunny  clime,  build- 
ers cared  less  for  light,  and  preferred  the  effect  of 
a  blind  triforium  which  throws  the  choir  below  into 
gloomy  and  mysterious  shadow.  Thus  we  see  that 
upon  the  design  of  the  triforium  depends  to  a  very 
great  extent  the  effect  of  the  light  and  shade  of  the 
interior  of  a  great  church. 

Once,  being  personally  conducted  by  the  dean  over 
one  of  the  cathedrals  of  the  west  of  England,  the 
writer  was  suddenly  called  upon  to  give  the  deriva- 
tion of  "  triforium."  The  word  is  applied  to  the 
ambulatory  or  passage,  screened  by  an  arcade,  which 
runs  between  the  pier  arches  and  clerestory  windows, 
and  is  considered  to  refer  to  the  three  openings,  or 
spaces,  trincB  fores,  into  which  the  arcading  was 
sometimes  divided.  It  probably  has  nothing  to  do 
with  openings  in  multiples  of  three,  nor  with  a 
Latinised  form  of  "  thoroughfare,"  as  suggested  in 
Parker's  Glossary,  although  the  main  idea  is  that  of 
a  passage  running  round  the  inside  of  a  church,  either 
as  at  Westminster,  in  the  form  of  an  ambulatory 

[  19  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

chamber,  or  of  a  gallery  pierced  through  the  main 
walls,  from  whence  the  structure  can  be  inspected 
without  the  trouble  of  using  ladders  or  erecting 
scaffolding.  M.  Enlart  in  his  "  Manuel  d'Arche- 
ologie  Frangaise,"  derives  the  word  from  a  French 
adjective  "  trifore,"  or  "  trifoire,"  through  the  Latin 
"  transforatus,"  a  passage  pierced  through  the  thick- 
ness of  the  wall;  and  this  idea  of  a  passage-way  is 
certainly  suggested  by  an  old  writer,  Gervase,  who, 
in  his  description  of  the  new  Cathedral  of  Canter- 
bury, rebuilt  after  the  fire,  alludes  to  the  increased 
number  of  passages  round  the  church  under  the 
word  "  triforia."  "  Ibi  triforium  unum,  hie  duo  in 
choro,  et  in  ala  ecclesiae  tercium." 

On  the  north  side  of  the  Cathedral  flows  the 
Somme,  and  there  is  perhaps  no  better  means  of 
realising  the  great  height  and  mass  of  the  building 
than  by  walking  along  the  river  banks,  whence  we 
see  the  old  houses,  great  and  small,  rise  tier  above 
tier  under  the  quiet  grey  outline  of  this  "  giant  in 
repose." 

In  an  extract  from  his  private  diary  Ruskin 
gives  the  following  description  of  this  walk  along 
the  river,  showing  it  in  an  aspect  at  once  squalid 
and  picturesque:  "Amiens,  May  nth. — I  had  a 
happy  walk  here  this  afternoon,  down  among  the 
branching  currents  of  the  Somme:  it  divides  into 

[20] 


BOULOGNE   TO   AMIENS 

five  or  six,  shallow,  green,  and  not  over-whole- 
some; some  quite  narrow  and  foul,  running 
beneath  clusters  of  fearful  houses,  reeling  masses  of 
rotten  timber;  and  a  few  mere  stumps  of  pollard 
willow  sticking  out  of  the  banks  of  soft  mud,  only 
retained  in  shape  of  bank  by  being  shored  up  with 
timbers;  and  boats  like  paper  boats,  nearly  as  thin 
at  least,  for  the  costermongers  to  paddle  about  in 
among  the  weeds,  the  water  soaking  through  the 
lath  bottoms,  and  floating  the  dead  leaves  from  the 
vegetable  baskets  with  which  they  were  loaded. 
Miserable  little  back  yards,  opening  to  the  water, 
with  steep  stone  steps  down  to  it,  and  little  plat- 
forms for  the  ducks;  and  separate  duck  staircases, 
composed  of  a  sloping  board  with  cross  bits  of 
wood  leading  to  the  ducks'  doors;  and  sometimes 
a  flower-pot  or  two  on  them,  or  even  a  flower — one 
group,  of  wall-flowers  and  geraniums,  curiously 
vivid,  being  seen  against  the  darkness  of  a  dyer's 
backyard,  who  had  been  dyeing  black,  and  all  was 
black  in  his  yard  but  the  flowers,  and  they  fiery  and 
pure;  the  water  by  no  means  so,  but  still  working 
its  way  steadily  over  the  weeds,  until  it  narrowed 
into  a  current  strong  enough  to  turn  two  or  three 
windmills,  one  working  against  the  side  of  an  old 
Flamboyant  Gothic  church,  whose  richly  traceried 
buttresses  sloped  down  into  the  filthy  stream ;  all  ex- 

[21    ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES    OF   FRANCE 

quisitely  picturesque,  and  no  less  miserable.  We 
delight  in  seeing  the  figures  in  these  boats,  pushing 
them  about  the  bits  of  blue  water,  in  Prout's  draw- 
ings; but  as  I  looked  to-day  at  the  unhealthy  face 
and  melancholy  mien  of  the  man  in  the  boat  pushing 
his  load  of  peat  along  the  ditch,  and  of  the  people, 
men  as  well  as  women,  who  sat  spinning  gloomily  at 
the  cottage  doors,  I  could  not  help  feeling  how  many 
persons  must  pay  for  my  picturesque  subject  and 
happy  walk." 

In  his  "  Miscellaneous  Studies "  Walter  Pater 
says:  "The  builders  of  the  Church  seem  to  have 
projected  no  very  noticeable  towers;  though  it  is 
conventional  to  regret  their  absence,  especially  with 
visitors  from  England,  where  indeed  cathedral  and 
other  towers  are  apt  to  be  good  and  really  make 
their  mark  .  .  .  The  great  western  towers  are  lost 
in  the  west  front,  the  grandest,  perhaps  the  earliest, 
of  its  species — three  profound  sculptured  portals;  a 
double  gallery  above,  the  upper  gallery  carrying 
colossal  images  of  twenty-two  kings  of  the  house 
of  Judah,  ancestors  of  our  Lady;  then  the  great  rose; 
above  it  the  singers'  gallery,  half  marking  the  gable 
of  the  nave,  and  uniting  at  their  topmost  storeys  the 
twin,  but  not  exactly  equal  or  similar  towers,  oddly 
oblong  in  plan  as  if  meant  to  carry  pyramids  or 
spires.    In  most  cases,  those  early  Pointed  churches 

[    22    ] 


BOULOGNE   TO   AMIENS 

are  entangled,  here  and  there,  by  the  construction  of 
the  old  round-arched  style,  the  heavy,  Norman  or 
other,  Romanesque  chapel  or  aisle,  side  by  side, 
though  in  strange  contrast,  with  the  soaring  new 
Gothic  nave  or  transept.  But  the  older  manner  of 
the  round  arch,  the  plein-cintre,  Amiens  has  nowhere 
or  almost  nowhere,  a  trace.  The  Pointed  style,  fully 
pronounced,  but  in  all  the  purity  of  its  first  period, 
found  here  its  completest  expression." 


[23] 


Cftjaptfr  El^vtt 


A 


W 


LAON,  RHEIMS  AND  SOISSONS 

*  ^^Tf^E  passed  Laon  in  the  dark,"  is  a  confes- 
sion frequently  made  by  travellers. 
The  Geneva  express  used  to  stop  here 
for  dinner,  and  during  the  brief  inter- 
val allowed  for  coflPee  and  cigarettes  many  a  traveller 
has  gazed  up  at  the  great  buttressed  hill,  silhoutted 
against  a  twilight  sky,  and  wondered  what  manner 
of  place  it  might  be,  half- fortress,  half-church,  rising 
some  three  hundred  and  fifty  feet  out  of  the  plain 
with  its  crest  of  towers  and  houses. 

If  Paris  is  the  type  of  the  island  cities  of  Gaul, 
surely  Laon  may  be  called  the  type  of  the  hill 
cities.  "  Laon  is  the  very  pride  of  that  class  of 
town  which  out  of  Gaulish  hill-forts  grew  into 
Roman  and  mediaeval  cities.  None  stands  so  proudly 
on  its  height;  none  has  kept  its  ancient  character  so 
little  changed  to  our  own  day.  The  town  still  keeps 
itself  within  the  walls  which  fence  in  the  hill-top, 
and  whatever  there  is  of  suburb  has  grown  up  at  the 
foot,  apart  from  the  ancient  city." 

[  24  ] 


LAON,    RHEIMS,  AND   SOISSONS 

Geologically,  Laon  is  a  limestone  island  in  the 
denuded  plain  of  Soissonais  and  Bearnais,  and  was  a 
Celtic  stronghold,  as  its  name,  a  contraction  of 
Laudunum,  shows,  dun  standing  for  a  hill  fortress. 
The  town  resembles  in  plan  a  blunt  crescent, 
one  horn  of  which  is  occupied  by  the  cathedral  and 
citadel.  An  electric  railway  connects  the  upper 
with  the  lower  town,  and  a  street  from  the  market- 
place leads  through  the  Parvis  to  the  very  beautiful 
west  facade  of  the  church.  Cathedral,  strictly 
speaking,  it  is  no  longer,  for  at  Laon  we  have 
another  of  those  instances,  always  somewhat  melan- 
choly, of  a  deserted  bishopstool.  Here  it  is  almost 
more  patiietic,  when  we  remember  that  the  Bishop 
of  Laon  was  second  in  importance  only  to  the 
Archbishop  of  Rheims  himself,  and,  going  back  to 
the  days  of  William  Longsword,  we  find  Laon  not 
only  a  bishopric,  but  a  capital  town — one  of  the  great 
trio  of  cities  which  ruled  northern  France  and  fought 
amongst  themselves  for  the  chief  mastery.  There 
was  the  Duke  of  Paris  in  his  capital;  there  was  the 
Duke  of  the  Normans,  an  outsider  who  by  force  of 
arms  had  settled  at  Rouen,  and  was  a  source  of  con- 
tinual trembling  to  the  Parisian  duchy;  and  there 
was  the  King  of  the  Franks  on  the  hill-top  at  Laon, 
nominally  suzerain  of  both  the  others,  but  really  in 
daily  fear  lest  one  or  other,  or  both,  should  swoop 

[  25  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

down  and  storm  his  hill-fortress  and  add  the  royal 
city  of  Laon  to  lands  which  in  those  days  went  to  any 
man  who  could  get  possession  of  them. 

Tradition  says  that  St.  Beat,  who  lived  towards 
the  close  of  the  third  century,  gathered  his  faithful 
together  in  a  small  chapel  hewn  out  of  the  rock, 
over  which  was  built  later  on  the  cathedral  church 
of  Notre  Dame.  This  church,  according  to  M. 
Daboval,  seems  to  have  been  still  in  existence  in 
the  fifth  century,  and  was  even  then  of  sufficient 
importance  to  attract  thither  many  scholars  who 
wished  to  study  the  Holy  Scriptures.  In  the 
twelfth  century  the  cathedral,  Bishop's  palace,  and 
many  other  churches  were  burnt  down,  owing  to 
communal  troubles  during  the  bishopric  of  Gaudry. 
The  present  cathedral  has  one  specially  distinctive 
feature:  the  east  end,  instead  of  being  apsidal, 
follows  the  English  type  of  a  square  termination. 
There  are  other  churches  in  the  neighbourhood 
built  on  a  similar  plan,  which  suggests  the  possibility 
of  English  architects  having  been  engaged  in  their 
construction.  Laon  is,  however,  in  one  important 
feature,  a  variant  from  the  common  arrangement  in 
English  churches  of  the  eastern  wall.  It  has  there 
a  great  circular  window  only,  instead  of  the  im- 
mense wall  of  glass  usually  adopted  in  this  country. 
The  bays  of  the   aisles   are   four-storied,   in  pairs, 

[  26  ] 


LAON,   RHEIMS,  AND   SOISSONS 

with  alternating  piers,  and  of  great  beauty,  the  ribs 
of  the  vaulting  springing  from  clusters  of  light  shafts. 
There  is  a  large  ambulatory  over  the  aisles,  "  which 
are  built  up  in  two  stories,  both  of  them  vaulted,  and 
the  upper  vaulted  aisle  giving  valuable  abutment  to 
the  clerestory  wall."  This  internal  arrangement  ap- 
pears to  have  been  in  favour  with  the  architects  of 
the  early  French  Gothic  style. 

The  twenty-eight  side  chapels  are  enclosed  by 
some  very  lovely  screens  of  a  later  date,  which, 
being  erected  during  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  and  of  Renaissance  design,  are  considered 
by  the  ultrg-Gothic  mind  to  clash  with  the  rest  of 
the  cathedral.  Nevertheless  they  are  very  beautiful 
in  proportion  and  appropriateness,  reticent  in  design, 
and  admirable  in  execution. 

VioUet-le-Duc,  in  his  review  of  the  cathedral  of 
Laon,  says  that  it  has  a  certain  ring  of  democracy 
and  is  not  of  that  religious  aspect  that  attaches  to 
Chartres,  Amiens,  or  Rheims.  From  the  distance  it 
has  more  the  appearance  of  a  chateau  than  of  a 
church:  its  nave  is  low  when  compared  with  other 
Gothic  naves,  and  its  general  outside  appearance 
shows  evidence  of  something  brutal  and  savage;  and 
as  far  as  its  colossal  sculptures  of  animals,  oxen  and 
horses,  which  appear  to  guard  the  upper  parts  of  the 
towers,  are  concerned,  they  combine  to  give  an  im- 

[27  a 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

pression  more  of  terror  than  of  a  religious  sentiment. 
One  does  not  feel,  as  one  regards  Notre  Dame  de 
Laon,  the  stamp  of  an  advanced  civilisation,  as  at 
Paris  or  at  Amiens.  Everything  is  rude  and  rough; 
it  is  the  monument  of  a  people  enterprising  and  en- 
ergetic and  full  of  great  virility.  They  are  the  same 
men  as  are  seen  building  elsewhere  in  the  neighbour- 
hood— a  race  of  giants. 

As  v^e  approach  Rheims  from  Paris,  Laon,  or 
Soissons,  there  is  very  little  sign  of  the  vineyards 
w^hich  one  associates  with  the  champagne  country. 
The  "  vine-clad "  hills  lie  to  the  south  in  the 
Epernay  district.  Here  to  the  north  of  the  city  we 
see  only  well-watered,  well-timbered  country,  lush 
meadow-lands,  and  even  market-gardens,  reminding 
us  more  of  the  upper  reaches  of  the  Thames  valley 
than  of  a  wine-growing  country. 

Rheims  chiefly  recommends  itself  to  the  English 
mind  as  the  place  where  the  kings  of  France  were 
crowned.  It  would  seem  also  as  though  the  fact  of 
being  crowned  at  Rheims  was  a  patent  of  royalty,  so 
to  speak,  to  the  kings  themselves,  since,  as  Freeman 
remarks,  their  rights  were  never  disputed  after  their 
anointing  with  the  sainte  ampoule,  "  Every  king 
of  the  French  crowned  at  Rheims,"  he  says,  "  has 
been  at  once  a  Frenchman  by  birth  and  the  undis- 
puted heir  of  the  founder  of  the  dynasty.    Hugh  and 

[  28  ] 


"V^^ 

.    -^ 


:      ^  ,^^  •.V   «.    \        T 


;5 
o 

H 

Pi 
< 

w 


••  • 

•  ••• 


•   •  •  ••  • 


LAON,    RHEIMS,   AND    SOISSONS 

his  son  Robert,  neither  of  them  born  to  royalty,  were 
crowned,  the  one  at  Noyon,  the  other  at  Orleans. 
Henry  the  Fourth,  the  one  king  whose  right  was 
disputed,  was  crowned  at  Chartres." 

Like  Soissons,  like  Laon,  like  Bourges  even, 
Rheims  has  carried  down  to  modern  times  the 
remains  of  that  prestige  which  must  always  attach 
to  a  royal  city,  even  though  the  royalty  have  long 
ago  departed  from  it.  It  moreover  brings  us  once 
again  to  the  story  of  Joan  the  Maid.  It  is  the 
scene  of  her  missign's  fulfilment,  of  France's  triumph, 
of  the  beginning  of  that  monarchy  which  Louis  XI. 
established  in  its  complete  form  and  which  the  later 
Bourbons  wrecked;  and  here,  when  the  crown  is  safe 
on  her  king's  head  and  Charles  VII.  has  his  own 
again,  does  Joan  ask  her  reward — permission  to  re- 
turn to  her  flocks  in  the  fields  of  Domremy.  And 
but  that  this  boon  was  too  simple  to  grant,  Joan's 
story  might  have  ended  with  this,  her  greatest 
triumph,  instead  of  in  the  market-place  at  Rouen. 

After  the  relief  of  Orleans,  Joan  had  captured 
Jargeau  and  Beaugency,  and  defeated  the  English  in 
a  great  fight  at  Patay,  in  which  Talbot,  the  English 
leader,  was  taken  prisoner.  Having  cleared  these 
last  obstacles  from  Charles's  path,  she  now  set  forth 
to  tell  him  that  all  was  ready  and  to  persuade  him 
to  make  all  speed  to  Rheims.    Speed,  however,  was 

[  29  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES    OF   FRANCE 

what  the  Dauphin  either  could  not  or  would  not 
make;  and  it  is  always  the  most  unsatisfactory  part 
of  the  history  of  Joan  the  Maid  that  when  she  had 
pressed  on,  scarcely  resting  by  night  or  day,  to  win 
back  his  kingdom  for  him,  Charles  seemed  in  no 
hurry  to  enter  upon  his  honours,  but  preferred 
dawdling  with  his  favourites  in  Touraine;  and  it 
was  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that  he  was  per- 
suaded to  ride  to  Rheims  with  Joan.  Selfish  indul- 
gence, foolish  favouritism,  petty  jealousies — were 
such  things  as  these  to  stand  in  the  path  from  which 
the  Maid  had  swept  all  other  barriers?  Joan,  how- 
ever, was  resolute.  In  hopes  of  rousing  him  she 
withdrew  her  army  into  the  country,  and  this 
retreat  had  the  desired  effect.  Charles  the  Lag- 
gard allowed  himself  to  be  brought  into  Rheims, 
and  on  July  17  Joan,  banner  in  hand,  stood  by  his 
side  in  the  cathedral  while  the  Archbishop  anointed 
him  with  the  holy  oil  and  crowned  him  Charles  VII. 
of  France.  Here,  so  far  as  Rheims  is  concerned, 
the  story  of  Joan  is  at  an  end. 

Two  papal  councils  were  held  at  Rheims,  in  the 
days  when  the  Gallican  Church  was  rising  to  its 
highest  power,  though  it  had  not  yet  gone  so  far 
as  to  resent  the  yoke  of  the  Papacy.  Pope  Leo  IX. 
in  1049  entered  the  city  in  full  state  to  consecrate 
for  Abbot  Heremas  his  newly-built  monastery  of 

[  30  ] 


LAON,   RHEIMS,  AND   SOISSONS 

Saint  Remi,  and  followed  up  the  consecration  by 
convoking  a  vast  synod  composed  of  nearly  every 
prelate  in  Europe,  archbishops,  bishops,  abbots, 
clergy,  and  laity  from  every  quarter,  who  sat  at 
Rheims  for  six  days;  but  their  business  seems  to 
have  been  connected  only  with  the  usual  canonical 
laws.  The  later  council,  which  took  place  in  1119 
and  was  presided  over  by  Calixtus,  appears  to  have 
occupied  itself  chiefly  with  quarrels  between  Henry 
of  England  and  Louis  of  France  on  matters  not  even 
ecclesiastical.  It  further  confirmed  the  Truce  of 
God  which  had  been  imposed  at  Caen  sixty  years 
before,  and  patched  up  a  peace  between  the  two 
kings,  after  an  interview  between  Henry  and 
Calixtus  at  Gisors,  in  which  the  English  king  took 
care  to  make  his  case  good  before  the  Pope  and  to 
represent  that  all  his  incursions  upon  the  territory 
of  Louis  had  been  made  solely  from  religious 
motives. 

Rheims  boasts  as  one  of  its  early  bishops  the 
saint  Remigius,  who  in  the  fifth  century  baptised 
Clovis  here  with  great  pomp,  and  who  received 
from  heaven,  as  the  legend  has  it,  a  flask  of  oil 
wherewith  to  anoint  his  king  before  admitting  him 
into  the  Church,  with  the  stern  injunction,  "  Burn 
now  that  which  thou  hast  worshipped  and  worship 
that  which  thou  hast  burnt."     This  flask  was  pre- 

[  31  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

served  as  one  of  the  Church's  most  precious  relics 
until  the  general  devastation  at  the  time  of  the 
Revolution,  when  it  v^as  broken  to  pieces  by  a 
fanatic.  At  the  time  of  the  consecration  of 
Charles  X.  it  reappeared  in  a  mysterious  fashion, 
and  is  now  shown  in  the  Tresor  of  the  cathedral  with 
various  other  relics. 

It  is  a  sad  fact  to  record  that  the  most  beautiful 
cathedral  fagade  ever  built  is  now  almost  entirely 
hidden  by  scaffolding  necessary  for  the  restoration  of 
the  building;  and,  judging  by  the  appearance  of  the 
timbering  and  the  paucity  of  workmen,  it  is  not  yes- 
terday that  the  work  was  commenced,  nor  is  it  by 
to-morrow  that  it  will  be  completed. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  thirteenth  century 
Robert  de  Coucy  was  entrusted  with  the  rebuilding 
of  the  cathedral  after  the  complete  destruction  of  the 
early  church  by  fire.  He  built  it  on  a  simple  plan 
of  a  vast  choir,  no  transepts,  and  a  rather  narrow 
nave.  "  Cet  edifice  a  toute  la  force  de  la  Cathedral 
de  Chartres,  sans  en  avoir  la  lourdeur ;  il  reunit  enfin 
les  veritables  conditions  de  la  beaute  dans  les  arts, 
la  puissance  et  la  grace;  il  est  d'ailleurs  construit  en 
beaux  materiaux,  savamment  appareilles,  et  Ton 
retrouve  dans  toutes  ses  parties  un  soin  et  une 
recherche  fort  rares  a  une  epoque  oil  Ton  batissait 
avec  une  grande  rapidite  et  souvent  avec  des  res- 

[  32  ] 


LAON,   RHEIMS,  AND   SOISSONS 

sources  insuffisantes." — ViolIet-le-Duc.  The  beauti- 
ful portals,  "  deep  and  cavernous,"  record  by  their 
thousand  sculptures,  in  a  clear  and  impressive  man- 
ner, the  creation  of  the  world,  the  whole  history  of 
the  Old  Testament,  the  life  of  our  Saviour  and  the 
redemption  of  mankind,  and  convey  to  all  who  pass 
by  this  great  object-lesson  of  their  faith.  The  tym- 
pana of  these  porches  are  glazed  instead  of  being 
filled  in  with  stone.  This  was  done  to  guard  against 
the  possible  breaking  of  the  doorway  lintel,  which, 
if  large,  might  very  well  give  way  under  the  weight 
of  the  superincumbent  mass  of  stone. 

Mr.  Bond,  referring  to  the  deeply  recessed 
porches  of  the  French  cathedrals — ^which,  if  we 
exclude  the  Galilees,  find  few  analogues  in  the 
English  churches — considers  them  as  lineal  descen- 
dants of  the  ancient  narthex.  "  As  a  rule  we  did 
not  care  to  develop  the  western  doorways.  The 
reason  may  be  that  our  churches  are  all  compara- 
tively low;  to  give  west  doorways,  therefore,  any 
considerable  elevation  would  be  at  the  expense  of 
the  western  windows.  We  needed  western  ligh< 
badly  in  our  English  naves,  especially  in  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries,  and  preferred  to  develop 
the  western  window  at  the  expense  of  the  western 
doorway,  reaching  in  the  end  such  a  fagade  as  that 
of  St.  George's,  Windsor." 
'  [  33  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

The  bays  of  the  nave  consist  of  large  clerestory 
windows  filled  with  glorious  deep  blue  glass,  a  small 
triforium  and  stilted  pier  arches;  a  very  short  chancel 
of  only  two  bays  and  chevet  hardly  gives  room  for 
the  priests  and  choristers,  the  sacrarium  is  therefore 
lengthened  westwards  and  projects  into  the  transepts. 

To  the  south  of  the  Cathedral  lies  the  interesting 
Abbey  Church  of  St.  Remi,  built  in  the  eleventh 
century.  Many  of  the  French  cathedral  towns  are 
fortunate  in  the  possession  of  either  an  abbey  or 
collegiate  church,  which  existed  some  two  or  three 
centuries  before  the  cathedral  itself  was  built.  At 
Nevers  is  the  church  of  St.  Etienne,  at  Evreux  St. 
Taurin,  at  Tours  St.  Martin.  At  Angers  and  other 
places  the  old  Romanesque  basilicas  are  still  to  be 
found.  Rheims  has  for  its  parent  church  the 
basilica  of  St.  Remi.  The  western  towers  are 
Romanesque,  and  one  of  them  has  been  left  more 
or  less  unrestored;  the  interior  has  all  the  impres- 
siveness  of  the  basilica  design;  the  pier  arcades 
and  triforium  of  the  nave  elevation  occupy  the 
whole  space  up  to  the  springing  of  the  barrel  vault, 
and  pilasters  are  carried  down  to  the  pier  capitals, 
where  they  rest  on  quaint  corbels  of  very  early 
design.  Like  churches  constructed  in  the  early 
days,  St.  Remi  has  double  aisles  on  either  side  of 
the  nave;  the  choir  is  brought  westwards  to  over- 

[  34] 


LAON,    RHEIMS,  AND    SOISSONS 

lap  the  nave  arches,  an  arrangement  often  found  in 
short  chancelled  churches;  the  east  end  is  peri- 
apsidal  in  plan,  and  the  windows  are  filled  with  fine 
blue  glass.  Ferguson  does  not  give  France  the 
credit  of  having  many  fine  Romanesque  churches 
sufficient  to  satisfy  the  splendid  tastes  of  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries,  but  he  makes  an  exception 
in  the  case  of  St.  Remi,  and  declares  it  to  be  "  a 
vast  and  noble  basilica  of  the  early  part  of  the 
eleventh  century,  presenting  considerable  points  of 
similarity  to  those  of  Burgundy." 

Rheims  has  enjoyed  for  a  long  time  popularity 
amongst  travellers.  As  far  back  as  a  hundred  and 
twenty  years  ago  a  writer,  describing  the  town  and 
its  hotel  accommodation,  says :  "  The  streets  are 
almost  all  broad,  strait  and  well  built,  equal  in  that 
respect  to  any  I  have  seen;  and  the  inn,  the  Hotel 
de  Moulinet,  is  so  large  and  well  served  as  not  to 
check  the  emotions  raised  by  agreeable  objects,  by 
giving  an  impulse  to  contrary  vibrations  in  the 
bosom  of  the  traveller,  which  at  inns  in  France  is 
too  often  the  case.  .  .  .  We  have  about  half  a 
dozen  real  English  dishes  that  exceed  anything  in 
my  opinion  to  be  met  with  in  France;  by  English 
dishes  I  mean  a  turbot  and  lobster  sauce,  ham  and 
chicken,  a  haunch  of  venison,  turkey  and  oysters, 
and  after  these  there  is  an  end  of  an  English  table. 

[  35  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

It  is  an  idle  prejudice  to  class  roast  beef  among 
them,  for  there  is  not  better  beef  in  the  world  than 
at  Paris.  .  .  .  The  French  are  cleaner  in  their 
persons,  and  the  English  in  their  houses." 

To  look  at  Soissons  to-day,  with  its  pleasant 
walks  and  modern  houses,  few  people  would  guess 
it  to  have  played  an  important  part  in  the  history 
of  north-eastern  France.  Yet  that  pleasant,  modern 
appearance  is  itself  a  proof  of  what  the  town 
endured  in  earlier  days.  So  fierce  was  the  struggle 
it  had  for  existence,  that  the  old  Soissons  has 
almost  worn  itself  out,  and,  seen  from  the  outside 
at  least,  a  new  and  prosperous  town  would  seem  to 
have  taken  its  place.  It  might  well  be  called  the 
city  of  sieges,  for  few  towns  have  suffered  more  in 
this  respect.  From  Roman  days  down  to  the 
Franco-Prussian  war  the  place  has  seemed  good  and 
desirable  from  soldiers  and  conquerors,  and  has  had 
to  pay  penalty  for  its  splendid  position  on  the  Aisne. 
Both  Caesar  and  Napoleon  recognised  its  importance 
as  a  military  station,  though  a  stretch  of  eighteen 
hundred  years  divided  the  Soissons  of  one  general 
to  the  Soissons  of  the  other.  Like  Laon,  it  was  for 
some  time  a  royal  seat;  and  it  was  here  that  Clovis 
the  Frank  defeated  Syagrius,  "  Romanorum  Rex," 
in  486,  and  turned  a  Roman  into  a  Prankish  king- 

[36] 


RHEIMS 


LAON,    RHEIMS,  AND    SOISSONS 

dom,  in  which  Soissons  was  for  some  time  the  capital. 
It  was  in  the  Abbey  of  St.  Medard,  which,  except  for 
some  subterranean  buildings,  is  now  destroyed,  that 
Louis  le  Debonnair  was  twice  imprisoned  by  his 
unnatural  children;  and  on  the  walls  of  one  of  these 
dungeons  have  been  found  some  verses,  apparently  a 
description  of  the  unfortunate  prisoner,  but  dating 
only  from  the  fifteenth  century. 

During  the  "  Hundred  Days "  Soissons  was 
twice  taken  and  twice  retaken  in  the  course  of  a 
month.  Bliicher  laid  siege  to  the  town  in  1814,  and 
but  for  a  sudden  surrender  on  the  part  of  the  gov- 
ernor, which  gave  it  into  his  hands  for  the  time,  it 
would  probably  have  been  annihilated  by  Napoleon, 
who,  as  matters  turned  out,  had  not  time  to  come  up 
with  the  Prussian  Army.  In  1870  another  Prussian 
force  entered  the  town  under  the  Duke  of  Mecklen- 
burg, after  a  siege  which  closes  the  roll  of  Soissons' 
struggles. 

On  both  occasions  of  our  visiting  Soissons,  we 
came  away  with  the  feeling  that  the  interior  of  the 
Cathedral  of  Notre  Dame  was  even  more  impressive 
than  that  of  Rheims.  It  is,  indeed,  a  worthy  rival  to 
its  neighbouring  sister  church;  the  beautiful  propor- 
tions of  the  nave,  the  simplicity  and  purity  of  the 
carved  capitals,  the  splendid  glass,  render  it  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  cathedrals  of  France.    There  is  a 

[  37] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES    OF    FRANCE 

lovely  little  chapel  in  the  salle  capitulaire  at  the 
west  end,  approached  by  a  cloister,  early  Gothic  in 
design,  with  its  vaulting  supported  by  two  graceful 
columns,  which  reminds  one  of  some  of  the  chapter 
houses  of  our  English  cathedrals. 

In  the  Place  du  Cloitre  is  a  doorway  into  the 
Cathedral,  with  a  graceful  pediment  enclosing  a 
high-springing  Gothic  tympanum,  which  is  glazed. 
The  mouldings  of  the  arch  have  alternating 
crocketted  courses,  and  the  capitals  are  carved  to 
represent  vine  leaves  and  grapes.  It  is  not  easy  to 
understand  why  so  beautiful  a  porch  should  occupy 
so  obscure  a  position,  unless  it  were  in  the  early 
days  some  special  entrance  for  the  bishops  or  for 
the  canons. 

On  the  south  side  there  is  a  Transition,  semi- 
circular chapel  or  apse,  with  a  roof  lower  than  that 
of  the  rest  of  the  Cathedral.  A  low  clerestory,  with 
three  lights,  and  a  small  triforium,  whose  base  rakes 
with  the  main  triforium  of  the  church,  form  the 
upper  members  of  the  elevation.  Below  there  is  a 
graceful  three-arched  ambulatory,  large  and  open, 
spreading  backwards  over  a  vaulted  chapel.  The 
main  arches,  simple  and  delicate  in  design,  complete 
the  whole  bay. 

Soissons  was  laid  out  on  a  plan  which  recalls  the 
plan  of  Noyon.     Its  south  transept,  as  at  Noyon, 

[  38] 


)  >     J   '» 


J     ,  J ,  > 


•     •     .    ,  «  c 


LAON,   RHEIMS,  AND   SOISSONS 

dating  from  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  is 
rounded  and  flanked  by  a  circular  chapel.  Although 
it  is  doubtful  whether  the  Cathedral  of  Soissons  was 
built  in  the  latter  part  of  the  twelfth  century,  or  only 
commenced  at  that  time,  it  is  certain  that  the  nave 
and  choir  have  the  distinct  appearance  of  thirteenth- 
century  design.  During  this  period,  however,  a 
kind  of  uncertainty  existed  in  the  planning  of  the 
religious  edifices.  These  were  constructed  on  a  vast 
scale,  and  emancipated  themselves  from  the  restricted 
Romanesque  design  in  obedience  to  the  religious 
movement  which  declared  itself  during  the  reigns  of 
Louis  le  Jeune  and  Philippe  Auguste,  but  the  cathe- 
dral type  had  not  yet  been  created.  The  require- 
ments of  the  nascent  ceremonial  were  not  yet 
fulfilled. 

The  once  magnificent  and  now  ruined  Abbey  of 
St.  Jean  des  Vignes  is  situated  on  the  hill  facing 
the  entrance  to  the  town  from  the  station.  The  west 
end  only  remains,  surmounted  by  two  towers  with 
spires.  "  These  are  a  great  ornament  to  the  town, 
and  were  spared  at  the  entreaty  of  the  citizens  when 
the  ruthless  democrats  destroyed  the  rest.  The  towers 
and  the  portal  are  probably  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
the  spires  more  modern."  They  were  much  damaged 
in  the  Franco-Prussian  war,  when  the  town  was 
bombarded. 

[  39  ] 


fi 


ROUEN 

OUEN  is  a  town  with  two  faces,  ancient 
and  modern,  and  the  face  which  it  appar- 
ently considers  the  most  becoming  is  the 
modern  one.  The  ancient,  historic  face, 
which  the  town  wore  when  Joan  of  Arc  rode  through, 
is  hidden  away  as  though  it  were  out  of  fashion,  and 
it  is  to  be  found,  not  in  the  broad  streets,  but  in  lanes, 
courts  and  alleys,  where  the  way  grows  narrow  and 
the  houses  meet  overhead.  Rouen,  the  chef-lieu  of 
a  department  and  fourth  on  the  list  of  French  ports, 
finds  more  important  business  on  hand  than  dream- 
ing itself  back  into  the  past,  and,  sacrificing  the  old 
life  to  the  new,  or,  rather,  building  up  a  new  life 
round  the  old,  has  made  of  itself  a  busy,  thriving 
commercial  town  on  the  banks  of  that  river  up  which 
the  beak-headed  ships  of  Rolf  the  Ganger  sailed  a 
thousand  years  ago  to  destroy  and  to  conquer.  But 
the  town's  history  is  only  put  aside,  not  forgotten ;  in- 
deed, there  is  too  much  of  it  to  forget.    The  records 

[  40  ]    ^ 


ROUEN 

of  Rouen  go  back  before  the  Roman  era  in  Gaul;  the 
Romans  found  it  as  Ratuma  or  Ratumacos,  and  then, 
Romanising  the  name,  as  they  did  everything  else, 
made  it  into  Rotomagus.  Even  in  these  early  days  it 
was  a  capital  city,  the  headquarters  of  the  Velio- 
cassian  tribe,  though  not  of  primary  importance. 
Later,  by  the  end  of  the  third  century  A.  D.,  we  find 
it  the  chief  city  of  the  province  Lugdunensis  Secunda, 
and  presently  an  archiepiscopal  see,  with  an  arch- 
bishop (now  of  course  a  saint)  to  guide  it  in  matters 
spiritual. 

Saint  Mellon  and  his  successors  made  a  goodly 
record  for  about  five  centuries.  They  were  a 
thoroughgoing  race,  these  early  bishops  of  Rouen, 
with  the  zeal  of  the  Christian  Fathers  fresh  upon 
them,  and  their  very  names  have  a  strong,  vigorous 
sound :  Avitian,  Victrix,  Godard,  Pretextat,  Romain, 
Ouen,  of  whom  the  memory  yet  remains  to  Rouen 
in  the  names  of  church,  street  and  tower.  After  this 
long  line  of  bishops  came  a  bad  time  for  Rouen. 
These  were  the  days  when  the  lands  to  the  south- 
west seemed  good  and  pleasant  to  the  Vikings,  the 
fierce  Northmen  who  in  after  days  were  to  give  their 
names  to  Normandy.  England  had  already  been 
over-run  with  them;  first  by  Jutes  and  Saxons,  then 
by  the  fiercer  Danes,  who  in  their  turn  pushed  out 
the  Saxons.    Only  a  few  miles  south  of  England  was 

[  41  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

another  land  just  as  fair,  with  a  river  easily  navigable 
even  to  the  great  Northern  ships,  and  thriving  towns, 
rich  and  full  of  booty  for  Northern  plunderers. 
Rouen,  peaceful  and  prosperous,  was  yet  dangerously 
near  the  sea,  and  the  year  841  saw  the  dreaded  prow 
of  Oger  the  Dane  coming  slowly  up  the  Seine,  scat- 
tering to  right  and  left  all  lesser  craft,  while  the 
terrible  war  song,  which  England  already  knew  and 
feared,  rose  and  fell  upon  the  wind.  This  was  only 
the  beginning.  Long  fiery  years  followed,  years  of 
ravages,  bloodshed  and  burning,  when  human  laws 
were  in  abeyance  and  the  only  rule  was  that  of  might. 
Thirty-five  years  after  Oger's  invasion  came  the 
famous  Rolf  the  Ganger,  who  laid  waste  the  land 
anew,  until,  in  912,  Charles  the  Simple  was  forced  to 
treat  with  him  at  Saint  Clair-sur-Epte  and  to  cede  to 
him  the  duchy  of  Neustria  or  Normandy.  Rolf  then 
embraced  Christianity,  and,  with  the  land  in  his  pos- 
session, seemed  determined  to  show  the  despised 
Franks  how  a  Northman  could  govern.  In  point  of 
fact  the  dukedom,  as  handed  over  by  Charles,  was 
practically  represented  by  Rouen  alone;  that  is, 
Rouen  apart  from  the  Bessin  and  the  Cotentin,  and 
all  the  adjacent  lands  which  we  now  include  under 
the  name  of  Normandy.  Further,  it  did  not  really 
belong  to  Charles.  Neustria  was  part  of  the  great 
duchy  of  Paris,  and  the  cession  of  it  to  Rolf  cut  off 

[  42  ] 


ROUEN 

Paris  from  all  access  to  tKe  sea.  But  that  Duke  Rob- 
ert had  the  sense  to  hold  his  tongue,  probably  from 
fear  of  losing  Paris  as  well,  there  might  have  been 
serious  results.  As  it  was.  Northern  France  fell  into 
three  divisions — the  royal  city  of  Laon,  the  duchy  of 
Paris,  and  the  settlement  of  Rolf  at  Rouen.  In  these 
three  cities  centres  most  of  the  subsequent  history  of 
Normandy. 

As  for  what  Rolf  actually  did  for  Rouen,  that 
remains  to  be  seen  rather  from  the  after  state  of 
affairs,  "  The  founder  of  the  Rouen  colony,"  Free- 
man says,  "  is  a  great  man  who  must  be  content  to  be 
judged  in  the  main  by  the  results  of  his  actions," 
Rolf  is  not  in  the  least  a  vague  or  shadowy  person- 
ality, but  it  is  noticeable  how  he  has  grown  to  us  out 
of  a  great  tangle  of  myths  and  very  little  fact.  All 
we  have  to  go  upon  is  the  not  very  authentic  Roman 
de  Rou,  a  few  Norse  legends,  and  sundry  brief  allu- 
sions by  later  French  writers,  who  class  him,  together 
with  all  the  Rouennais,  under  the  contemptuous 
term  Pirate.  It  was  a  well-ordered,  strong,  self-de- 
pendent colony  that  he  handed  down  to  the  long  line 
of  his  successors.  These  carried  on  bravely  the  tra- 
ditions of  their  founder  and  brought  up  a  hardy  race 
of  fighters,  although  Rouen  itself  was  never  thor- 
oughly Teutonic,  never  at  least  since  the  very  early 
days  of  Rolf's  colony.    The  religion,  the  language, 

[  43  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES    OF   FRANCE 

and  many  of  the  customs  of  the  French  at  Laon  were 
grafted  on  to  the  Northmen  of  Rouen  by  their  leader, 
and  thus  the  town  stood  as  much  apart  from  the  rest 
of  Neustria  as  from  the  Franks  themselves.  After 
the  death  of  Rolf  and  of  his  successor,  William 
Longsword,  Louis  from  beyond  Sea,  of  the  race  of 
Charlemagne,  ruled  at  Laon,  and  cast  envious  eyes 
on  Normandy,  even  occupying  Rouen  for  some  time 
during  the  minority  of  Richard  the  Fearless.  But 
although  Rouen  was  ultimately  to  become  a  town  of 
France,  the  time  was  not  yet,  and  for  the  present  her 
destiny  was  averted  by  an  outsider — Harold,  King 
of  Denmark,  curiously  surnamed  Blue-tooth.  He 
determined  to  resist  the  encroachments  of  Louis,  and 
finally  made  him  prisoner  in  the  city  where  he  had 
hoped  to  establish  another  capital. 

The  Norman  dukes  only  deteriorated  as  rulers 
when  they  joined  to  their  domain  the  crown  of 
England,  won  by  the  hardiest  and  strongest  of  them 
all.  We  remember  the  passionate,  self-willed 
Robert,  son  of  the  Conqueror,  and  John,  called 
Lackland,  that  disgrace  to  the  English  throne,  the 
worst  and  likewise  the  last  Norman  duke,  for  the 
French  king,  Philippe  Auguste,  confiscated  Nor- 
mandy, together  with  other  English  possessions,  and 
joined  it  to  the  crown  of  France,  taking  possession 
of  Rouen  after  a  siege  in  1204.     From  this  point 

[441 


ROUEN 

the  history  of  Rouen  becomes  the  history  of  a 
French  and  not  of  a  Norman  town.  As  a  reward 
for  its  submission,  Philippe  Auguste  presented  the 
town  with  a  castle,  of  which  one  tower  (the  Tour 
Jeanne  d'Arc)  alone  remains  standing.  Two  cen- 
turies later,  Rouen  was  in  danger  from  the  English. 
Henry  V.,  during  his  brilliant  campaign  in  northern 
France,  was  not  likely  to  leave  to  itself  such  an  im- 
portant place.  In  1419  he  set  up  his  cannon  outside 
the  walls,  and  proceeded  to  blockade  the  town^  which 
opened  its  gates  to  him  after  a  six  months'  siege. 
Here  he  also  built  a  castle,  which,  in  the  hopefulness 
born  of  youth  and  victory,  he  intended  to  use  as  a 
royal  residence  when  all  France  should  be  at  rest 
under  his  firm  rule.  But  before  the  conquest  was 
completed,  before  he  had  time  to  think  about  any 
residence  other  than  his  camp,  came  that  last  fatal 
sickness  at  Vincennes,  and  the  castle,  which  seemed, 
like  all  his  victories,  so  sure  and  so  lasting,  has  been 
swept  off  the  face  of  the  earth.  The  years  after 
Henry's  death,  however,  were  significant  ones  for 
Rouen,  now  in  English  hands,  and  in  143 1  we  come 
to  the  great  point  in  its  history,  the  trial  and  burning 
of  Joan  of  Arc  in  the  market-place. 

Captured  near  Compiegne,  Joan  had  been  sent  to 
Rouen  by  the  bishop  of  Beauvais.  This  was  in 
March.    The  girl  was  examined  fifteen  or  sixteen 

[  45  1 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

times,  a  wearying  repetition  of  question  and 
answer,  often  going  round  and  round  in  a  circle 
and  never  advancing  any  further.  Joan's  replies 
were  simple  but  firm.  She  persisted  in  her  divine 
mission,  and  when  asked  whether  she  was  in  a  state 
of  grace  or  of  sin  replied,  "  If  I  am  not  in  a  state 
of  grace,  I  hope  God  will  make  me  so.  How  can 
I  be  in  much  sin  while  the  saints  will  visit  me?  "  In 
May  matters  were  delayed  by  her  illness,  which  was 
so  serious  that  it  seemed  for  a  time  as  though  her 
enemies  were  to  be  defeated  by  death;  but  on  her 
recovery  learned  doctors  were  sent  to  her  in  prison 
to  persuade  her  of  her  wrong  attitude  of  mind.  Later 
came  a  warning  from  Cauchon,  the  bishop  of  Beau- 
vais,  to  the  effect  that  he  was  about  to  have  her 
brought  forth  and  made  the  object  of  a  public  ser- 
mon, after  which,  if  she  would  recant,  her  safety 
would  be  assured.  Worn  out  with  her  trials,  the 
poor  girl  declared  her  submission  and  signed  a  re- 
cantation, for  she  saw  that  the  end  could  not  but 
come  soon.  A  penance  of  perpetual  imprisonment 
was  then  imposed  upon  her,  and  she  submitted 
passively  to  the  injunctions  laid  upon  her;  but  at  her 
final  abjuration  she  seemed  to  be  overcome  by  a 
sudden  access  of  penitence  towards  the  saints,  and 
resumed  her  old  attitude  of  determination,  declaring 
that  all  she  had  said  in  submission  was  said  in  fear 

[  46  ] 


ROUEN 

of  being  burned  at  the  stake,  of  which  she  had  a 
very  natural  horror.  After  this  her  fate  was  sealed. 
Cauchon  handed  her  over  to  the  secular  arm,  and  a 
few  hours  later  she  was  led  to  the  stake  in  the  old 
market-place.  It  is  needless  to  dwell  upon  this  last 
scene,  because  it  is  one  of  the  stock  dramatic  occur- 
rences in  our  history  books,  which  nearly  always 
represent  Joan  of  Arc  as  suffering  trial,  torment  and 
death,  for  the  sake  of  her  country  with  almost  un- 
natural fortitude;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  more 
one  reads  about  her,  the  more  clear  it  becomes  that 
the  heroism  of  the  Maid  of  Orleans,  though  none  the 
less  heroic,  was  a  heroism  of  the  simplest  order,  born 
of  a  pure  heart,  a  steady,  straightforward  faith  in  her 
mission,  and  only  wavering  at  the  last  from  a  very 
human  and  girlish  horror  of  so  infamous  and  dread- 
ful a  death.  And  as  for  her  judges,  needlessly  cruel 
though  they  were,  yet,  as  one  writer  points  out,  they 
were  almost  bound  to  condemn  their  prisoner.  To 
try  her  for  sorcery  and  to  burn  her  as  a  witch  seems 
of  course  to  our  modern  eyes  not  merely  horrible,  but 
absurd.  Cauchon  and  his  followers,  however,  did 
not  live  in  an  enlightened  age;  in  their  day  the 
"  Black  Art "  was  a  thing  to  be  dreaded  above  all 
others,  and  death  seemed  a  light  thing  in  comparison 
with  the  putting  down  the  power  of  the  Evil  One. 
Others  besides  Joan  of  Arc,  for  generations  before 

[  47  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

and  generations  after,  had  died  at  the  stake  for  re- 
puted practice  of  magic;  and  in  the  case  of  the  Maid, 
"  to  acquit  her  would  have  been  to  accept  her  celestial 
mission  and  place  her,  with  some  modern  French 
historians,  by  the  side,  nay,  in  the  place,  of  the 
Messiah."  The  trial  and  burning  of  Joan  cannot  be 
looked  upon  by  the  light  of  a  modern  world;  they 
are  of  their  time,  and  that  time  was,  above  all  things, 
a  superstitious  one.  And  only  after  her  death  did 
France  realise  what  the  Domremy  peasant  girl  had 
done  for  her  country.  The  French  monarchy,  as 
Louis  XL  established  it,  is  perhaps  the  best  monu- 
ment to  her  memory.  After,  and  as  some  say  because 
of,  Joan's  death  English  prestige  in  Rouen  began 
steadily  to  decline.  Two  years  afterwards,  in  1433, 
came  the  death  of  John,  Duke  of  Bedford,  brother  of 
Henry  V.,  perhaps  the  only  man  left  with  anything 
of  Henry's  strength  and  singleness  of  purpose. 
Rouen  held  out  against  two  attempts  at  recapture  on 
the  part  of  Charles  VII.,  but  in  1449  Somerset  was 
forced  to  capitulate  to  a  strong  expedition,  and  the 
English  left  the  town  for  ever. 

By  the  middle  of  the  next  century  we  find 
Rouen  in  the  thick  of  religious  troubles.  In  1562 
it  was  for  six  months  in  Huguenot  hands,  six 
months  of  warfare,  oppression  and  persecution  of  all 
Romanists  within  the  walls,  with  worse  to  follow; 

/  [  48  ] 


ROUEN 

for  when  the  Royalists  recaptured  the  town  they  re- 
paid the  Huguenots  in  their  own  coin,  and  revenged 
the  Catholic  massacres  with  a  terrible  revenge. 
After  this  the  Army  of  the  League  held  Rouen  until, 
in  1596,  Henry  IV.  of  France  effected  an  entrance 
into  the  town. 

Nowadays  the  first  view  of  Rouen  is  a  smoky, 
dreary  little  station,  surrounded  by  cockers  and 
porters  in  linen  blouses;  but  Arthur  Young,  an 
agriculturist  of  the  eighteenth  century,  visited  the 
old  city  during  his  travels,  before  the  days  of  the 
"  iron  way,"  and  he  was  more  fortunate  in  what  he 
saw  from  his  diligence:  "  The  first  view  of  Rouen  is 
sudden  and  striking;  but  the  road  doubling,  in  order 
to  turn  more  gently  down  the  hill,  presents  from  an 
elbow  the  finest  view  of  a  town  I  have  ever  seen ;  the 
whole  city,  with  all  its  churches  and  convents,  and 
its  cathedral  proudly  rising  in  the  midst,  fills  the 
vale.  The  river  presents  one  reach  crossed  by  the 
bridge,  and  then,  dividing  into  two  fine  channels, 
forms  a  large  island  covered  with  wood ;  the  rest  of 
the  vale,  full  of  verdure  and  cultivation,  of  gardens 
and  habitations,  finish  the  scene,  in  perfect  unison 
with  the  great  city  that  forms  the  capital  feature." 
To  get  this  view  to-day  one  must  climb  the  long, 
dusty  hill  to  the  convent  of  Bon  Secours,  or  rather, 
half-way  only,  since  the  city,  river  and  meadows, 

[49] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

show  their  beauties  just  as  well  from  a  lower  point, 
and  the  modern  convent  and  church  upon  tKe  hill- 
top are  not  worth  a  further  climb. 

From  the  main  street  of  the  town  the  Cathedral  is 
reached  by  the  Rue  de  la  Grosse  Horloge,  whicK 
leads  underneath  the  archway  of  the  belfry.  The 
Tour  St.  Romain  rises  at  the  end  of  the  street  like  a 
tall  white  guide,  and  here,  suddenly,  we  find  our- 
selves face  to  face  with  the  west  fagade  of  Notre 
Dame.  The  remark  made  by  an  American  traveller, 
that  he  found  Rome  very  much  out  of  repair,  is  ap- 
propriate to  many  of  the  French  cathedrals.  Sched- 
uled as  historic  monuments,  they  receive  annually  a 
dole  from  the  Government  towards  maintenance  and 
restoration,  but  so  miserable  is  this  contribution,  and 
so  inadequate  to  the  possibility  of  early  completion 
of  the  work,  that  a  generation  may  pass  away  before 
the  scaffolding  is  finally  removed.  The  west  portal 
of  Rouen  is  half  covered  by  a  forest  of  timbering. 
Rheims  suffers  even  more,  and  the  same  may  be  said 
for  Notre  Dame  at  Evreux,  St.  Urbain  at  Troyes, 
and  many  other  cathedrals.  Such  glimpses,  however, 
as  we  get  of  the  west  front  of  Rouen  show  us  its 
glory.  Ruskin  writing  of  it  says :  "  It  is  the  most 
exquisite  piece  of  pure  Flamboyant  work  existing. 
There  is  not  one  cusp,  one  finial,  that  is  useless,  not 
a  stroke  of  the  chisel  is  in  vain ;  the  grace  and  luxuri- 

[  50  1 


ROUEN 

ance  of  it  all  are  visible — sensible,  rather,  even  to 
the  uninquiring  eye;  and  all  its  minuteness  does  not 
diminish  the  majesty,  v^hile  it  increases  the  mystery 
of  the  noble  and  unbroken  vault." 

Of  the  origin  of  this  Flamboyant  style  a  dis- 
tinguished French  writer,  M.  Enlart,  in  a  paper 
lately  read  before  the  Archaeological  Institute  of 
Great  Britain,  has  asserted  that  it  is  to  be  found  not 
in  France,  but  in  England ;  and  specialising  the  west 
front  of  Rouen,  he  further  states  that,  in  the  ar- 
rangement of  its  large  bay  enclosing  the  rose  window 
and  flanked  by  tiers  of  statues,  it  recalls  absolutely 
the  fagades,  earlier  in  date,  of  the  cathedrals  of 
Wells,  Salisbury  and  Lichfield. 

With  one  or  two  exceptions,  viz.,  St.  Urbain  at 
Troyes  and  a  chapel  in  Amiens  Cathedral,  the 
Flamboyant  style  did  not  appear  in  France  until  the 
last  quarter  of  the  fourteenth  century,  and  when  it 
had  once  taken  root,  it  maintained  its  integrity  until 
the  Renaissance,  having  the  same  characteristics  from 
one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other.  It  was  not  the 
evolution  of  any  previous  French  style,  but  it  derived 
its  origin,  as  above  stated,  from  a  style  which  existed 
in  England  a  century  before.  Roughly  speaking,  the 
features  which  distinguish  the  Flamboyant  are,  first, 
the  ogee  arch  which  is  typical  of  the  style,  then 
special  systems  of  vaulting,  and  flowing  tracery  of 

[SI  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

windows,  forms  of  arches,  "  anse  de  panier,"  &c., 
arch  mouldings  dying  into  piers  without  impost 
or  capital,  and  generally  a  love  of  vegetal  and  un- 
dulating decoration.  This  "  decorative  caprice  " 
reigned  in  France  in  the  fifteenth  century  at  a 
time  when  the  Perpendicular  style  became  universal 
in  England  and  had  completely  driven  out  the 
ogee  arch. 

The  occupation  of  the  greater  part  of  France  by 
the  English  in  the  Hundred  Years'  War  would 
naturally  result  in  an  English  influence  being 
noticeable  in  its  buildings,  the  contact  of  nations 
producing  an  exchange  of  art  as  of  commerce. 
The  Flamboyant  may  therefore  be  said  to  be  the 
by-product  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War. 

There  is  documentary  evidence  that  both  at  Rouen 
and  at  Evreux  the  foreign  occupation  did  not  inter- 
fere with  the  work  going  on  at  the  cathedrals ;  indeed, 
at  Rouen,  two  canons  of  York  were  received  with 
the  greatest  courtesy  by  the  chapter,  and  contribu- 
tions were  made  by  the  English  towards  the  com- 
pletion of  the  Cathedral.  The  domination  of  the 
English  was  no  hindrance  to  the  progress  of  art  in 
France,  and  as  soon  as  the  latter  had  freed  itself  and 
realised  its  national  unity,  its  architects  applied 
themselves  heart  and  soul  to  the  development  of  this 
style  which  was  "  borrowed  from  the  enemy." 

[  52  ] 


ROUEN 

A  long  list  can  be  made  of  buildings  where  the 
ogee  arch  and  other  typical  features  obtained  in 
England,  from  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  to  the 
latter  part  of  the  fourteenth  century,  during  which 
time  no  parallels  existed  in  France.  One  of  the 
most  ancient  examples  is  Queen  Eleanor's  Cross  at 
Northampton  (1291-1294),  where  Flamboyant  fea- 
tures show  themselves. 

The  tomb  of  William  de  la  Merche  at  Wells 
(1302),  Aymer  de  Valence  at  Westminster  (1323), 
and  many  other  early  fourteenth-century  examples, 
furnished  by  almost  every  cathedral,  testify  to  the 
prevalence  of  the  passion  for  the  ogee  motive  of 
decoration.  These  are  given  in  detail  by  M.  Enlart 
as  irrefragable  proofs  of  the  English  origin  of  the 
Flamboyant  style. 

The  interior  of  the  Cathedral  of  Rouen  is  con- 
sidered by  Mr.  Bond  to  be  curiously  Romanesque  in 
plan.  Its  nave  bays  are  four-storied,  an  upper  and 
lower  pier  arch  with  small  triforium  and  clerestory. 
The  upper  pier  arch  might  also  be  regarded  as  a 
triforium,  for  a  passage-way  runs  along  the  sill  of 
the  arch  and  is  continued  behind  the  main  piers  on 
an  elegant  group  of  shafted  corbels.  These  were 
originally  intended  to  support  a  vault  of  a  lower 
aisle.  The  east  end  is  more  dignified  and  has  simpler 
factors,  clerestory,  triforium  and  pier  arch.     The 

[  53  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

glass    IS   magnificent,    dating   from   the    thirteenth 
century. 

South  of  the  Cathedral  a  narrow  street  leads 
eventually  to  the  river  by  way  of  the  halles,  the 
Place  Haute-Vieille-Tour  and  its  sister  of  the 
Basse-Vieille-Tour.  The  first  square  is  a  large 
open  place,  fenced  round  with  solid  stone  buildings, 
and  having  on  its  south  side  the  Chapelle  de  la 
Fierte  Saint-Romain.  With  this  monument,  on 
which  a  flight  of  steps  leads  up  to  a  Renaissance 
chapel  of  six  stages,  is  connected  a  curious  privi- 
lege and  legend,  both  of  which  have  of  course 
been  recorded  before,  but  which  are  interesting 
enough  to  bear  repetition.  The  charter  for  this 
privilege  was  accorded  to  the  chapter  of  Rouen 
Cathedral  by  King  Dagobert — he  who  founded  the 
Abbey  of  Saint  Denis.  Each  year,  on  Ascension 
Day,  the  archbishop  was  empowered  to  release  a 
man  condemned  to  death;  and  therefore  every  As- 
cension Day  the  good  folk  of  Rouen  flocked  into 
the  streets  to  watch  the  procession  of  the  Fierte 
Saint-Romain.  First  came  the  solemn  visit  of  the 
arm  of  the  Church  to  the  arm  of  the  Law,  with  the 
annual  formal  proclamation  of  the  privilege.  Then 
every  prison  in  the  city  must  be  searched,  and  every 
prisoner  put  on  oath  and  examined  as  to  the  cause 
of  his  imprisonment.     Finally  the  election  of  the 

[  54  ] 


3 ' ,  I . ,  J :    ' . ' ;  s  ; ' .  . , ' 


RUE  DE  L'HORLOGE,  ROUEN 


ROUEN 

favoured  prisoner  was  put  to  the  vote  by  the  chapter, 
his  name  sent  to  the  Palais  de  Justice,  and  the  paper 
duly  signed  and  sealed,  after  which  the  "  messe  du 
prisonnier"  was  celebrated  in  the  Salle  des  Pas- 
Perdus;  and  finally,  the  prisoner  himself  was  called 
before  his  lords,  secular  and  spiritual,  and  formally 
examined;  he  then  confessed  to  the  chaplain  of  Saint- 
Romain,  his  fetters  were  removed,  and  he  followed 
the  archbishop  to  the  Place  Haute-Vieille-Tour, 
where,  in  the  Chapelle  de  la  Fierte,  a  solemn  service 
made  him  once  more  a  free  man.  A  solemn  and 
magnificent  procession  then  bore  him,  crowned  with 
flowers,  to  the  great  thanksgiving  Mass,  after  which 
he  was  free  to  go  whither  he  would.  No  less  curious 
is  the  legend  connected  with  the  ceremony.  It  is 
said  that  while  Romain  was  bishop  of  Rouen  a  ter- 
rible dragon  laid  waste  all  the  land  and  devoured  the 
inhabitants. 

No  one  dared  to  approach  this  monster,  who  was 
known  as  the  Gargoyle,  until  Saint  Romain,  armed 
only  with  his  sanctity,  set  out  to  subdue  it,  ac- 
companied by  a  condemned  criminal— the  proto- 
type of  those  who  were  released  on  Holy  Thursday — 
when  the  Gargoyle  at  once  submitted  and,  with  the 
episcopal  stole  round  its  neck,  was  led  by  the  prisoner 
to  the  water's  edge.  The  sequel  does  not  reflect  much 
credit  upon  the  bishop — at  least,  it  seems  rather  of 

[  55  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

the  nature  of  meanness  to  conjure  the  beast  into  good 
nature  and  then  to  push  it,  all  unawares,  into  the 
river  to  drown.  At  the  head  of  the  Portail  de  la 
Calende,  the  north  porch  of  the  Cathedral,  stands  the 
figure  of  Saint  Romain,  and  under  his  feet,  with  the 
stole  round  its  neck,  is  the  Gargoyle,  craning  its  head 
round  to  look  into  the  face  of  the  bishop  with  the 
expression  of  a  very  hideous  but  very  faithful  dog — 
a  most  disarming  expression  if  it  be  meant  to  repre- 
sent that  worn  by  the  Gargoyle  before  it  was  sent  to 
its  death  I  In  memory  of  this  occurrence,  the 
standard  of  the  dragon  was  borne  in  the  processions 
at  the  privilege — banners  similar  to  those  of  the 
dragons  at  Bayeux  and  Salisbury.  The  legend,  how- 
ever, appears  to  be  of  later  dite  than  the  festival, 
which  is  mentioned  certainly  as  early  as  the  twelfth 
century,  and  continued  to  delight  the  Rouennais  as 
late  as  1790. 

The  Abbey  Church  of  St.  Ouen  is  placed  at  the 
head  of  the  collegiate  churches  of  France  so  far  as 
its  beauty  and  perfection  of  architecture  is  concerned. 
In  its  proportion  of  nave,  transepts  and  choir  it  is 
considered  to  outshine  Cologne,  its  great  rival  and 
contemporary.  The  vast  area  of  clerestory  and 
glazed  triforium  recalls  the  interior  arrangement  of 
Amiens.  The  triforium  passage  is  worked  between 
the  lower  muUions  of  the  windows,  which  are  dupli- 

[  56] 


ROUEN 

cated;  but,  as  is  pointed  out  by  Mr.  Bond,  care  was 
taken  that  the  inner  and  the  outer  tracery  of  the  win- 
dows should  be  different  in  pattern.  Freeman  says: 
"  St.  Ouen  goes  further  to  unite  the  two  forms  of  ex- 
cellence"— external  outline  and  internal  height — 
"  than  any  other  church,  French  or  English,"  and 
states  that  "  St.  Ouen  is  the  loftiest  church  in  the 
world  that  has  a  real  central  tower." 

This  central  lantern  is,  according  to  Ferguson,  a 
very  noble  feature  and  appropriate  to  its  position; 
unhappily  it  does  not  enjoy  the  admiration  of  all 
writers:  Ruskin  condemns  the  false  buttresses  of  the 
tower,  which  he  describes  as  merely  a  hollow  crown, 
and  declares  that  it  needs  no  more  buttressing  than 
does  a  basket. 

The  third  church  of  Rouen  is  that  of  St.  Maclou. 
Its  most  noticeable  feature  is  the  west  end,  which 
terminates  in  a  very  beautiful  porch  of  pentagonal 
form,  and  might  be  taken  as  another  example  of 
the  rich  Flamboyant  ornament  seen  in  the  western 
fagade  of  the  Cathedral.  The  church  itself  is  a 
complete  specimen  of  its  period,  and  dates  from  the 
latter  half  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

On  the  north  side  of  the  church,  in  the  Rue  Mar- 
tainville,  is  the  Aitre  de  St.  Maclou,  an  old  parish 
cemetery  of  the  fifteenth  century.  There  is  a  small 
quadrangle,  an  old  disused  stone  well  with  an  iron 

[  57  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

crucifix  in  the  centre,  and  round  all  runs  a  cloister 
with  two  low  stories,  timbered  in  black  and  white^ 
with  the  famous  "  Danse  Macabre  "  carved  on  thf 
lower  beams.  It  is  now  used  as  a  school  for  the  poor 
children  of  Rouen,  and  on  working  days  is  full  of 
life — the  life  of  a  growing  generation  going  on  side 
by  side  with  the  relics  of  a  dead  and  half-forgotten 
past,  for  the  quaint  seriousness  of  an  old  fifteenth- 
century  builder  has  traced  upon  the  lintel  a  constant 
reminder  of  death  and  the  grave — skulls,  bones, 
spades,  and  here  and  there  a  grim  skeleton  Death 
bearing  away  a  human  figure  in  his  arms.  Many  of 
the  most  beautiful  figures  are  headless,  not  from  the 
ravages  of  a  symbolic  Death,  but  from  those  of  a  very 
real  and  equally  unsparing  hand — the  hand  of  the 
Revolution. 

During  the  Franco-Prussian  War  Rouen  had 
unhappily  to  record  its  own  chapter  of  reverses, 
when  the  French  determined  to  dislodge  Manteuflfel. 
Faidherbe's  army,  together  with  the  army  of  the 
Havre  and  General  Roy's  army  of  the  South,  had 
planned  out  an  admirable  scheme,  which,  however, 
was  lacking  in  one  essential,  actual  execution.  Man- 
teufifel  was  to  be  routed  and  driven  out  of  Rouen. 
The  Prussians  were  equally  confident  of  success,  and 
it  is  said  that  Manteufifel  ordered  his  train  to  take 
him  to  Amiens  to  be  ready  next  day  at  twelve  o'clock, 

[  58  ] 


>  >     >        >  > 


>      >    1      »    »  ^       > 


ROUEN 

by  which  time  he  felt  sure  that  he  would  have  dis- 
posed of  the  enemy. 

"The  battle  began  before  daylight,  the  pursuit 
lasted  until  after  dark  and  was  resumed  on  the  fol- 
lowing morning;  but  the  victory  was  virtually  gained 
when  the  first  blow  was  struck,  or,  rather,  the  first 
shot  fired.  Here  and  there,  on  the  road  along  which 
they  were  driven,  or  on  the  wooded  heights  by  which 
the  road  is  in  many  places  commanded,  they  made  a 
desperate  resistance,  but  it  was  throughout  a  question, 
in  regard  to  the  French,  of  the  rate  of  retreat,  never 
a  question  of  retreat  and  advance." 


[  59  ] 


EVREUX   AND   LISIEUX 

^-p^E  left  Rouen  by  a  "  quick  "  train,  that  is, 
W  I  ^  one  which  occupied  itself  in  stopping  at 
V J^  every  wayside  station  that  caught  its 
fancy.  However,  this  mattered  little,  as 
the  road  to  Evreux  runs  through  the  most  enchanting 
country,  and  we  had  plenty  of  time  to  admire  it. 
Wonderful  woods  stretch  over  the  slope  of  the  hills 
and  widen  out  into  valleys  scattered  with  old  tim- 
bered farm-houses,  and  here  and  there  a  chateau, 
seen  amongst  the  trees  of  its  proprtete;  little  poplar- 
shaded  rivers  run  through  the  fields,  decked  in  holi- 
day garlands  of  loosestrife  and  meadowsweet  and  un- 
molested by  any  eager  pecheur,  whether  boy  with 
string  and  bent  pin,  or  more  "  compleat  angler  "  with 
rod  and  line.  The  Seine,  divested  of  barge  and  steam 
tug,  greets  one  by  glimpses  now  aad  then ;  and  after 
leaving  the  tunnel  before  Elbceuf,  it  bursts  suddenly 
into  view — a  wide  sweep  of  river,  with  the  busy  little 
town  by  its  side.   Then  the  valley  closes  in  all  at  once, 

[  60  ] 


EVREUX   AND    LISIEUX 

and  we  run  under  the  shadow  of  chalk  cliffs  with 
steep  scarped  faces  and  deep  caverns,  into  whose 
blackness  we  may  almost  peer  from  the  carriage  win- 
dow. Lastly  comes  a  run  up  on  to  high  ground 
again;  and  there  below,  shut  in  by  hills,  with  three 
towers  rising  from  its  low  roofs,  is  Evreux.  The 
railway  takes  a  great  curve  from  one  side  of  the  town 
to  the  other  before  running  into  the  station,  so  that 
the  place  passes  in  review  before  one;  and  it  is  an 
impressive  review,  seen  as  we  first  saw  it,  in  the  light 
of  a  summer  sundown,  a  purple  haze,  *^  mystic,  won- 
derful," hanging  like  a  veil  over  the  little  town. 

Besides  the  Cathedral  and  the  bishop's  palace, 
Evreux  possesses  little  that  strikes  one  as  being  either 
very  old  or  very  new;  a  cheerful,  clean  mediocrity 
prevails  all  through  the  town,  which,  nevertheless, 
dates  back  to  very  early  times.  Remains  of  a  Roman 
settlement  have  been  discovered  some  little  distance 
away,  at  Vieil  Evreux,  then  known  as  Mediolanum 
Aulercolum,  and  afterwards  as  Eburovices,  whence 
is  derived  the  modern  name  of  Evreux.  A  bishopric 
was  founded  at  Evreux  by  St.  Taurin,  during  the 
great  movement  towards  Christianity  in  the  fourth 
century;  later,  Clovis  destroyed  the  Roman  encamp- 
ment and  founded  a  town  of  his  own,  which  in  its  turn 
was  burnt  and  pillaged  by  the  Northmen  in  the  ninth 
century.    After  this  it  probably  shared  the  bounty 

[  6i  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES    OF    FRANCE 

of  its  former  scourge,  Duke  Rolf,  and  became  part 
of  the  Norman  duchy  and  a  Naboth's  vineyard  to 
Count  Thibaut  of  Chartres,  who  did  actually  take 
possession  of  it  in  962,  though  Richard  the  Fearless 
must  have  reclaimed  the  town,  as  he  presented  the 
"  Comte  d'Evreux,"  which  was  to  pass  later  into  the 
family  of  Montfort  I'Amaury,  to  one  of  his  younger 
sons.  Henry  I.  set  fire  to  Evreux  for  some  mysterious 
reason,  but  with  the  full  consent  of  the  bishop,  who 
must  have  had  peculiar  ideas  on  the  subject  of  his 
pastoral  duties;  and  in  the  reign  of  Coeur-de-Lion 
John  Lackland  gave  it  up  to  the  French  Crown,  and 
afterwards,  filled  with  remorse,  or  more  probably 
with  alarm,  at  the  news  that  his  brother  was  return- 
ing from  Palestine  and  might  demand  what  had 
become  of  Evreux,  ordered  a  general  massacre  of  the 
French  garrison  quartered  there  and  ran  away  him- 
self, leaving  his  wretched  English  subjects  to  bear 
the  brunt  of  the  French  king's  wrath  when  the  story 
should  come  to  his  knowledge. 

After  several  vicissitudes  of  this  kind,  Evreux 
was  in  1404  finally  joined  to  the  Crown  of  France, 
though  it  still  seems  to  have  been  tossed  about  in  the 
most  confusing  way,  and  we  hear  of  it  as  belonging 
now  to  France,  now  to  Navarre,  then  sold  to  the 
Darnley  Stuarts  and  back  again  to  France;  and  so  on 
until   Napoleon,  having   divorced   Josephine,  pre- 

[  ^2  ] 


EVREUX   AND    LISIEUX 

sented  her  out  of  his  imperial  bounty  with  a  part  of 
the  Comte  d'Evreux  as  a  compensation  for  her  trials. 
The  modern  town,  however,  has  not  at  all  the  air  of 
having  been  the  plaything  of  kings  and  states.  The 
only  noticeable  traces  of  its  ancient  warfare  are  the 
machicolated  walls  of  the  bishop's  palace,  and  the 
moat  below,  running  between  the  palace  and  the 
Boulevard  Chambaudin.  The  moat  is  now  filled  up 
by  a  kitchen-garden — a  striking  example  of  how 
peace  has  succeeded  war  in  Evreux — ^but  it  is  easy  to 
imagine  how  it  must  have  looked  in  the  old  days; 
the  dark,  still  water,  the  steep  walls  rising  up  to  their 
turrets,  the  treacherous  machicolations,  apparently 
ornamental  but  in  reality  only  too  useful,  and  above 
it  all  the  grey  towers  of  Notre  Dame. 

The  interior  of  the  Cathedral  extends  in  date 
from  the  Romanesque  to  the  Renaissance  period. 
The  nave  bays  offer  examples  of  what  is  known  as 
"  skeleton  construction  " ;  they  consist  of  a  Roman- 
esque pier  arch  (said  to  be  the  remaining  work  of 
Lanfranc)  surmounted  by  a  large  clerestory  and 
small  glazed  triforium;  the  clerestory  wall,  as  Mr. 
Bond  points  out,  is  so  shallow  that  it  "  ceases  to  exist 
qua  wall."  It  is  in  some  way  analogous  to  the  choir 
of  Gloucester  in  its  "  attenuated  construction."  The 
lights  are  filled  in  with  glass,  apparently  of  the  late 
fifteenth  century.    As  Whewell  says,  the  transepts 

[63  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

and  part  of  the  choir  are  most  remarkable  and  most 
ancient  examples  of  the  Flamboyant  style.  The 
choir,  burnt  down  in  1346,  was  restored  in  the  second 
half  of  the  fourteenth  and  early  fifteenth  centuries; 
the  transept  was  finished  about  1450.  The  English 
took  possession  of  the  town  in  141 8,  but  this  did  not  in 
any  way  hinder  the  work  from  being  carried  on.  In 
1422  Tchan  le  Boy  was  made  maitre  de  Vceuvre,  and 
to  him  is  attributed  the  Lantern  Tower,  springing 
from  a  beautiful  vaulted  base.  The  vitrail  of  the 
Saintes  Maries  and  its  mouldings,  probably  designed 
by  Le  Boy,  follows  the  English  type. 

Evreux  is,  according  to  Whewell,  "  a  mixture  of 
Flamboyant  and  Renaissance.  The  Flamboyant  dies 
down  gradually  into  Italian,  especially  in  the  series 
of  wooden  screens  to  the  chapels  round  the  choir, 
where  every  sort  of  mixture  is  noticeable."  In  some 
of  the  glass  and  on  the  outside  panels  of  the  west 
doors  the  artists  have  attempted  to  show  their  knowl- 
edge of  the  newly-discovered  science  of  perspective, 
but  they  pay  little  regard  to  the  vanishing  point.  On 
the  north  side,  the  windows  of  the  aisle,  with  high 
pediments  cutting  the  balustrades,  are  very  beautiful 
examples  of  the  prevailing  style.  The  western  tow- 
ers "  are  to  be  considered  as  Gothic  conceptions 
expressed  in  classical  phrases." 

In  the  far  west  of  the  town,  at  the  end  of  the  Rue 

[  64  ] 


EVREUX  AND   LISIEUX 

Josephine,  lies  Saint  Taurin,  the  second  church  of 
Evreux,  in  its  quiet  little  square,  screened  by  magnif- 
icent elm-trees,  a  square  and  solid-looking  building, 
with  a  good  deal  of  work  that  is  very  interesting  and 
undoubtedly  ancient.  Originally  the  church  formed 
part  of  a  Benedictine  Abbey  founded  in  1026;  an 
ancient  crypt  remains,  built,  as  purports  to  be  the 
case  with  so  many  churches,  round  the  tomb  of  the 
patron,  Saint  Taurin,  who  in  the  fourth  century 
brought  Christianity  into  the  town,  and  whose  story 
maybe  read  in  the  fifteenth-century  glass  of  the  choir. 
His  relics  are  preserved  in  a  wonderful  carved 
casket  of  the  thirteenth  century,  which  may  be  seen 
by  the  curious  in  the  church  treasury.  In  three  bays 
of  the  south  nave  the  vaulting  ends  in  some  curious 
stone  carving  in  the  form  of  grotesque  heads,  which 
belong  to  the  sixteenth  century. 

"  Once  a  cathedral,  always  a  cathedral "  was  the 
theory  which  led  us  to  Lisieux  en  route  for  Bayeux. 
It  seemed  almost  as  absurd  that  the  great  church  of 
St.  Pierre  should  not  be  counted  a  cathedral  as  that 
St.  Etienne  and  the  other  churches  of  Caen  should 
be  churches  and  nothing  more.  In  this  respect,  in- 
deed, Lisieux  takes  precedence  of  Caen,  for  until  the 
days  of  the  Empire  she  had  a  bishopstool  of  her  own, 
while  Caen  never  actually  possessed  the  dignity  of 
an  episcopal  see. 

[  65  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

Lisieux  is  one  stage  further  on  the  high  road  be- 
tween French  Normandy  and  Norman  Normandy, 
and  is  some  way  over  the  Norman  border;  at  Rouen, 
at  Evreux  even,  we  were  in  France,  but  here  all 
around  us,  as  at  Bayeux,  are  signs  and  tokens  of  a 
land  more  closely  akin  to  our  own,  and  we  feel  that 
we  have  at  last  reached  Normandy  proper.  Lisieux, 
both  for  its  Cathedral  and  for  itself,  is  full  of  interest. 
The  general  impression  is  that  of  a  bright  little  place 
with  a  great  deal  of  life — the  life  of  shop  aiid  mar- 
ket— to  be  seen  on  all  sides,  but  none  of  the  modern 
commercial  spirit,  such  as  dominates  a  place  like 
Rouen.  There  is  a  very  mediaeval  air  about  Lisieux, 
and  the  old  houses,  of  which  there  are  plenty,  are  to 
be  found  not  in  out-of-the-way  alleys,  but  in  the  chief 
streets.  The  Grande  Rue  has  one  magnificent  speci- 
men, now  a  boot-maker's  shop,  opposite  the  Rue  du 
Paradis;  down  at  the  bottom  of  the  hill,  in  the  Rue 
de  Caen,  is  a  house  where  Charlottle  Corday  spent 
the  night  on  the  way  to  Paris  to  fulfil  her  terrible 
mission,  and  the  Rue  aux  Fevres,  where  one  seems  to 
have  walked  straight  into  the  Middle  Ages,  con- 
tains the  "  Manoir  de  Frangois  1%"  a  beautiful  six- 
teenth-century house,  from  whose  name  one  would  at 
least  suppose  that  Frangois  once  spent  a  night  there, 
whereas  he  probably  never  went  near  the  place,  and 
its  chief  claim  to  the  title  lies  in  the  abundance  of 

[66] 


>  '     J        J  J 


Oi'L\\iU 


THE  TOWERS  OF  EVREUX 


EVREUX   AND   LISIEUX 

carved  salamanders  on  the  splendid  house-front,  and 
even  these  are  mixed  up  with  apes  and  other 
grotesque  creatures. 

The  Church  of  St.  Jacques  stands  almost  at  the 
top  of  the  hill,  between  the  Rue  St.  Jacques  and 
the  Marche  au  Beurre,  where  most  of  the  straggling 
streets  converge.  It  was  built  in  the  last  years  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  and  is  a  fairly  complete  specimen 
of  the  French  style  of  that  period,  standing  upon  a 
long,  wide  flight  of  steps,  with  a  balustrade  running 
completely  round  the  building.  The  floor  inside  fol- 
lows the  slope  of  the  hill,  and  slants  upwards  from 
west  to  east. 

The  church  contains  some  half-effaced  frescoes  on 
the  nave  pillars,  and  a  very  curious  old  painting  on 
wood,  representing  the  miraculous  translation  of  St. 
Ursin's  relics  to  Lisieux  in  1055.  This  picture  hangs 
in  a  chapel  in  the  south  aisle,  dedicated  to  St.  Antony 
of  Padua,  not  in  St.  Ursin's  own  chapel,  which  is  on 
the  other  side  of  the  nave. 

Lisieux  looks  like  a  town  with  a  history,  and,  like 
most  French  towns,  goes  back  to  Roman  times,  when 
it  was  known  as  Noviomagus  or  as  Lexovii,  from  the 
Gallic  tribe  which  had  settled  there.  Rolf  obtained 
it  as  part  of  his  Norman  duchy;  Geoffrey  Plantag- 
enet  and  Stephen  of  Blois  fought  over  it  and  be- 
tween them  reduced  the  town  to  a  terrible  state  of 

[  67  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

famine,  for  which  Henry  II.  of  England  tried  to 
make  amends  by  causing  his  own  marriage  with 
Eleanor  of  Poitou  to  take  place  in  the  Cathedral. 
Thomas  a  Becket  took  refuge  at  Lisieux  on  one  occa- 
sion and  left  behind  him  some  vestments,  which  are 
proudly  displayed  in  the  chapel  of  the  Hospice. 

During  the  Hundred  Years'  War  and  the  reli- 
gious quarrels  two  centuries  later,  Lisieux  shared 
the  fate  of  other  towns  as  regards  sieges  and  con- 
flagrations; but  after  this  we  hear  little  of  its  history, 
and  may  assume  that  it  emerged  from  its  trials  much 
as  we  see  it  now — busy  and  peaceful  once  more,  with 
leisure  to  turn  again  to  the  old-world  town  routine 
which  makes  the  Lisieux  of  to-day. 

The  interior  of  St.  Pierre,  according  to  WHewell, 
"  bears  a  great  resemblance  to  Early  English  work, 
although  the  French  square  abacus  is  still  to  be  found 
here.  The  round  abacus  is  noticeable  in  the  arcades 
under  the  windows  of  the  choir,  giving  quite  an 
English  look  to  this  portion  of  the  church."  There 
is  at  the  west  end  a  large  interior  porch,  which  is  re- 
ferred to  by  most  writers  on  architecture.  The  two 
towers  vary  in  their  openings,  one  having  lancet 
lights  and  the  other  small  round-headed  windows. 
The  nave  is  large,  consisting  of  eight  bays,  and  built, 
it  is  said,  about  1160.  The  tympana  of  the  choir 
triforium  arches  are  filled  with  plate  tracery,  quatre- 

[68] 


\  '    >    '  .  '   '    1  ' 
'     >    >  J     J    )  »     J 


C/1 

W 
ID 

a 


C/3 


EVREUX   AND    LISIEUX 

foil  and  cusped.  The  most  beautiful  interior  eleva- 
tion, however,  is  that  of  the  north  wall  of  the  transept. 
Here  the  three  large  upper  lights  remind  one  of  the 
well-known  "  Five  Sisters "  at  York.  The  lower 
double-light  window  is  deeply  recessed,  with  elegant 
clusters  of  engaged  shafts  supporting  the  graceful 
mouldings  round  the  opening.  The  transept  also 
possesses  an  eastern  aisle,  which  is  said  to  be  a  rarity 
in  France. 

The  church  Itself  is  unfortunately  situated  in  a 
corner  of  the  Place,  and  a  large  building  which 
abuts  on  its  north-west  tower  detracts  considerably 
from  its  beauty  and  importance.  The  south 
transept  door  opens  into  the  Rue  du  Paradis — a 
name  which  one  is  glad  to  see  preserved  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  French  cathedrals.  It  may  refer  to  a 
garden  or  close  which  has  been  absorbed  by  sur- 
rounding buildings,  or  to  a  closed-in  porch,  the 
upper  stories  of  which  have  been  used  either  as 
libraries,  or  as  lodgings  for  chantry-priests. 


[  69  1 


BAYEUX 

^  M^E  read  of  Bayeux — before  going  there — as 
^  I  ^  a  place  where  many  went  but  few  stayed, 
\M^r  because  of  the  towns  behind  and  before; 
memories  of  Caen  and  Lisieux,  expecta- 
tions of  Coutances  and  Saint-L6,  which  dimmed  the 
modest  light  of  little  Bayeux.  It  is  curious,  however, 
that  this  should  be  the  case,  when  we  remember  how 
important  was  the  position  it  held  in  the  history  of 
mediaeval  Normandy.  It  was  the  chief  town  of  the 
country  known  as  the  Bessin,  a  district  lying  immedi- 
ately to  the  west  of  Rolf's  duchy  at  Rouen,  and  the 
conquest  of  which  was  the  next  stage  on  his  westward 
road.  One  interesting  point  here  is  that  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  Bessin,  even  as  far  back  as  the  later  days 
of  the  Roman  Empire,  were  not  Celts  but  Saxons — 
men  of  the  same  race  as  Rolf,  who  took  possession 
of  Bayeux  in  924,  and  established  there  a  Danish  set- 
tlement, which,  as  Freeman  says,  was  always  a  thorn 
in  the  side  of  the  Celts,  and  provoked  many  attacks 

[  70  I 


BAYEUX 

from  Its  Breton  neighbours.  Saxon  and  Dane  made 
common  cause  against  the  enemies  both  to  the  east 
and  to  the  west;  and  thus  at  Bayeux  there  grew  up 
a  strong  Teutonic  colony,  without  the  Prankish  ele- 
ment which,  as  we  have  seen,  worked  such  changes 
at  Rouen.  The  old  Norse  religion  obtained  here 
long  after  eastern  Normandy  had  become  Christian; 
and  the  Bayeux  colony  bore  much  more  affinity  to 
the  Danish  settlements  in  England  than  to  that  at 
Rouen,  the  nucleus  of  Normandy,  which  was  hardly 
Norman  at  all,  whereas,  as  Freeman  remarks,  "  the 
acquisition  of  Bayeux  gave  Normandy  all  that 
created  and  preserved  the  genuine  Norman  char- 
acter." For  this  reason  William  Longsword  chose 
that  his  son,  Richard  the  Fearless,  should  be  brought 
up  at  Bayeux  rather  than  at  Rouen — so  that,  living 
amongst  his  own  people,  he  might  in  time  come  to  be 
not  only  Duke  of  Normandy,  but  also  Duke  of  the 
Normans. 

The  Bessin  still  preserves  this  ancient  distinction, 
and  both  country  and  inhabitants  bear  a  great 
resemblance  to  those  of  England.  Bayeux  itself  is 
a  quiet  country  town,  built  up  one  low  hill  and 
down  another — a  town  of  long  streets  and  grey- 
shuttered  houses,  possessing  three  principal  interests 
— the  Cathedral,  the  Seminary  Chapel  and  the 
Tapestry.     It    is    also    the    birthplace    of    Alain 

[  71  ]/ 


CATHEDRAL    CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

Chartier,  minstrel  and  court-poet  to  Charles  VII., 
and  author  of  that  curious  document,  the  "  Curiale," 
whose  best  praise  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  was  one  of 
the  earliest  books  selected  for  publication  by  Caxton. 
It  is  a  brilliant  and  vivid  picture  of  the  court  life 
of  the  time;  and  the  story  says  of  Maitre  Alain 
that  he  intended  it  as  an  answer  to  a  letter  from  his 
brother  Jean,  enquiring  whether  he,  too,  could  not 
find  fame  at  court.  Certainly  it  looks  as  if  the 
favoured  brother  wished  to  keep  to  himself  the  good 
things  of  life,  for  although  he  paints  in  brilliant 
colours,  Alain  does  not  spare  the  follies  and  vices  of 
court  life,  and  one  cannot  help  feeling  that  his 
object  was  to  put  the  more  obscure  Jean  "  off  the 


scent." 


Little  is  known  of  the  circumstances  either  of 
Chartier's  birth  or  his  death,  though  of  his  actual 
life  several  records  exist.  He  is  known  to  have 
been  one  of  the  most  brilliant  men  of  letters  of  his 
time,  probably  rivalled  only  by  Charles  d'Orleans, 
and — since  a  court  minstrel  is  always  a  picturesque 
figure — he  has  come  down  to  our  times  surrounded 
by  a  certain  halo  of  romance.  His  many  writings, 
both  in  prose  and  verse,  are  very  little  known  to 
modern  readers,  though  he  had  many  disciples 
among  the  men  of  his  own  time,  and  his  "  Bre- 
viaire  des  Nobles "  was  considered  such  a  standard 

[  72  ] 


BAYEUX 

for  courtly  manners  that  it  was  apportioned  out,  so 
Jean  de  Masks  tells  us,  into  daily  passages  for  the 
youth  of  the  court — that  court  of  which  Chartier 
knew  every  turn,  every  corner,  every  glittering 
folly  and  every  dark  intrigue — to  learn  by  heart. 
A  modern  statue  in  his  native  town  at  the  end  of 
the  Rue  General  de  Dais  shows  him  in  furred  cap 
and  flowing  robe,  a  pen  in  one  hand,  and  in  the 
other  a  sheaf  of  papers  from  which  he  is  appar- 
ently declaiming  some  gay  rondel  or  pathetic 
ballad. 

His  house  in  the  Rue  des  Bouchers  is  also  shown, 
with  an  inscription  to  the  effect  that  he  was  born 
there  with  his  two  brothers,  Jean  and  Guillaume; 
but  it  has  now  become  a  very  small  and  dingy  shop, 
and  one  goes  away  with  a  feeling  that  a  link  with 
the  past  has  been  broken.  But  although  Chartier's 
house  would  scarcely  be  singled  out  as  an  ancient 
landmark,  one  or  two  there  are  in  the  quiet  grey 
line  of  the  Bayeux  streets  that  seem  to  belong  to  a 
better  time,  a  time  when  watchmen  walked  the 
streets  by  night  and  armed  men  clattered  down 
them  by  day:  and  among  these  stands  out  the 
really  beautiful  gabled  specimen  at  the  corner  of 
the  Rue  St.  Martin.  Here  cross-timbers,  black 
and  white,  tall  gables  and  lattice  windows  call  for 
our  admiration  on  our  road  to  the  Cathedral;  and 

[  7Z  ] 


CATHEDRAL    CITIES    OF   FRANCE 

nearer  the  great  church  itself  is  the  sixteenth- 
century  Maison  du  Gouverneur,  and  another 
"  Maison  d'Adam."  It  is  curious  how  often  street 
and  house  names  in  France  reverted  in  this  way  to 
our  common  origin.  In  countless  places  do  we  find 
Maisons  d'Adam  (Eve  sometimes  has  a  share  in  the 
patronage  of  the  house),  with  their  figures  of 
Adam,  Eve  and  the  Serpent;  sometimes,  as  at 
Rouen,  a  whole  street  bears  the  name  of  the  Pere 
Adam.  It  would  be  interesting  to  know  if  this  is 
a  cropping  up  of  the  Revolutionary  egalite — a 
wooden  form  of 

"  When  Adam  delved  and  Eve  span, 
Who  vi^as  then  the  gentleman  ?  '* 

If  SO,  the  idea  is  certainly  before  its  time,  since  many 
of  these  houses  and  streets  were  built,  and  presum- 
ably named,  when  the  Revolution  was  as  yet  in  its 
cradle. 

The  Lanterne  des  Morts,  a  quaint  structure  with 
a  quaint  title,  raises  a  perforated  cone  on  the  south- 
west of  the  Cathedral.  This  mediaeval  lamp-post 
had  it  name  from  the  fact  that  it  was  lighted 
whenever  a  funeral  procession  passed  through  the 
town;  and  it  must  certainly  have  added  to  the  im- 
pressiveness  of  the  scene,  especially  when,  as  was 
often  the  case  in  old  days,  the  burial  took  place  in 

[  74  ] 


BAYEUX 

the  dead  of  night,  and  this  red  glowing  beacon 
towered  above  the  low  roofs  like  a  great  funeral 
torch  as  the  chanting  of  the  monks  broke  the  still- 
ness, and  the  sombre  figures  with  their  burden  moved 
into  the  church. 

Returning  to  the  three  principal  attractions  of 
Bayeux  noticed  above,  the  Cathedral — the  only- 
church  of  importance — falls  naturally  into  the  first 
place.  Entering  by  one  of  the  five  beautiful 
gabled  doorways,  one  stands  on  a  platform  above 
the  level  of  the  nave  floor.  The  standpoint  being 
thus  raised,  the  length  of  the  church  is  apparently 
enhanced.  There  is  a  church  in  Rome  and  another 
at  Modena  where  this  coup  d'ceil  is  effected  by  the 
street  level  being  some  twenty  or  thirty  steps  above 
the  nave. 

The  bays  of  the  nave,  especially  in  their  lower 
compartments,  are  very  remarkable.  Above  the 
twelfth-century  round-headed  pier  arches,  and 
reaching  to  the  very  small  triforium  balustrade,  the 
whole  wall  face  is  decorated  with  beautiful  diaper 
carving.  This  surface  decoration  is  to  be  found  in 
Westminster  Abbey,  but  not  in  the  same  varied  rich- 
ness as  on  the  walls  and  spandrils  at  Bayeux.  On  one 
of  the  bays  the  old  corbels  which  carried  the  organ 
in  the  thirteenth  century  still  remain.  The  clerestory 
windows  are  beautiful  in  proportion  and  constructed 

[  75  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

in  double  planes.  The  spandrils  and  tracery  of  the 
choir  arches  show  examples  of  early  plate  tracery. 

In  the  treasury  one  of  the  most  interesting  pieces 
of  furniture  is  a  large  armoire  containing  church 
vestments,  and  another  example  of  early  joinery  is 
to  be  found  in  the  fine  door  in  the  south  aisle.  Here 
huge  planks,  some  eighteen  feet  in  length,  are  fast- 
ened together  by  iron  bands  and  hinges,  without 
framework  of  any  kind.  The  two  western  towers, 
together  with  the  crypt,  are  said  to  be  the  only  parts 
remaining  of  the  old  church  of  Odo,  brother  of  the 
Conqueror. 

We  made  two  unsuccessful  attempts  to  obtain 
entrance  to  the  Seminary  Chapel;  but  as  it  is  said 
to  be  a  very  beautiful  specimen  of  early  Gothic, 
the  short  description  given  by  Whewell  may 
perhaps  act  as  an  incentive  to  other  visitors,  and 
spur  them  on  to  greater  importunity  than  we  used. 
He  considers  it  to  be  "  the  most  elegant  and  com- 
plete example  of  the  Early  English  style.  The 
details  resemble  those  of  the  Temple  Church  in 
London,  in  the  shafts,  capitals,  vaulting,  &c.  The 
arrangement  of  the  east  end  is  remarkable,  uniting 
as  it  does  in  a  considerable  degree  the  effect  of  the 
polygonal  apse  and  of  the  east  windows,  having 
diverging  vaulting  but  with  eastern  lights." 

At  the  present  day  it  is  upon  the  Tapestry  that 

[  76] 


>  >      J    •■>    > 


A  STREET  CORNER,  BAYEUX 


BAYEUX 

Bayeux  bases  its  chief  claim  to  notoriety,  and  the 
first  feeling  is  one  of  surprise  if  not  of  disappoint- 
ment on  finding  that  it  can  hardly  be  reckoned  as 
tapestry  at  all.  This  impression,  however,  soon  dis- 
appears when  we  come  to  consider  the  interest  and 
importance  of  the  work,  not  merely  as  a  local  but  also 
as  an  historic  monument.  Many  and  fierce  have  been 
the  controversies  as  to  its  origin — all  the  more  so 
from  the  fact  that  it  was  not  brought  to  light  until 
(speaking  relatively)  within  recent  times,  so  that 
little  can  be  gained  from  history  or  tradition,  or, 
indeed,  from  anything  beyond  the  internal  evidence. 
The  form  of  the  Tapestry  is  well  known  to  all  visitors 
of  Bayeux  (and  without  going  so  far  afield,  a  very 
accurate  copy  may  be  seen  at  the  South  Kensington 
Museum) — a  long,  narrow  piece  of  linen,  embroid- 
ered in  crewel  work  of  five  different  colours,  setting 
forth  the  conquest  of  England  by  Duke  William.  In 
1724  M.  Lancelot  found  a  copy  of  some  of  the  scenes 
among  the  papers  of  the  Intendant  of  Normandy, 
and  concluding  after  a  close  investigation  that  every- 
thing pointed  to  the  work  being  contemporary  with 
the  events  depicted,  communicated  his  discovery  to 
the  Academie  Frangaise.  Montf  aucon  carried  on  the 
investigation,  and  finally  discovered  the  original  of 
Lancelot's  copy  in  a  length  of  tapestry  which  was 
hung  round  the  Cathedral  at  Bayeux  on  great  festi- 

[  77  ] 


CATHEDRAL    CITIES    OF    FRANCE 

vals.  The  early  authorities  seem  to  have  entertained 
no  doubt  of  its  being  contemporary,  but  later  ac- 
counts set  forth  theories  so  widely  different  from  one 
another,  and  in  some  cases  so  flatly  contradictory, 
that  it  is  impossible  to  enter  into  them  within  a  very 
limited  space.  Following  the  authority  of  Freeman, 
who  treats  the  subject  in  a  very  complete  manner  in 
his  "  History  of  the  Norman  Conquest "  (vol.  iii. 
Appendix,  note  A),  we  may  assume  that  the 
*'  Toilette  du  Due  Guillaume,"  as  it  is  called  in  an 
ecclesiastical  inventory  at  Bayeux  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  is  contemporary  with  the  history  of  the  Con- 
queror, but  is  more  likely  to  have  been  connected 
with  Odo  than  with  Queen  Matilda.  This  theory  is 
supported  by  the  prominence  given  in  the  various 
scenes  to  "  Turold,  Vital,  and  Wadard,"  who  are 
mentioned  in  Domesday  Book  as  vassals  of  the  bishop, 
but  are  in  themselves  quite  unimportant,  which 
would  suggest  that  the  original  interest  of  the 
Tapestry  was  intended  to  be  a  purely  local  one,  for 
the  Bishop  of  Bayeux  alone.  Freeman  thinks  it  pos- 
sible that  the  work  may  have  been  done  in  England. 
When  Napoleon  became  First  Consul  he  sent  for  the 
tapestry  from  Bayeux,  and  displayed  it  in  the  Louvre 
as  an  incentive  to  Frenchmen  to  conquer  England  as 
Duke  William  had  conquered  it  some  seven  centuries 
before.    After  this  it  returned  to  Bayeux,  and  was 

[  78  ]• 


BAYEUX 

formerly  shown  to  the  curious  visitor  rolled  on  a 
windlass;  but  later  days  have  treated  it  more  rever- 
ently, and  it  is  now  preserved  under  glass  in  a  condi- 
tion of  colour  and  texture  which,  considering  its  age 
and  its  adventures,  it  little  short  of  marvellous. 

Side  by  side  with  that  of  the  Conqueror,  the 
other  memory  which  Bayeux  calls  up  is  undoubtedly 
that  of  the  greatest  bishop  the  little  city  ever  knew, 
who  governed  it  during  half  a  century  of  Norman- 
dy's most  stirring  history.  Odo's  life-story  stands 
out  among  those  of  the  men  of  his  time,  indeed,  much 
as  does  the  life-story  of  his  half-brother,  Duke 
William.  In  an  age  when  bishops  wielded  sword  as 
well  as  mace,  he  outstripped  his  contemporaries  not 
only  in  ecclesiastical  power,  but  in  the  highest  of 
temporal  ambitions.  Like  Wolsey,  he  aimed  at  being 
Pope  above  all  his  other  goals.  In  the  meantime 
Odo  despised  no  stepping-stones  to  power.  He  be- 
came Bishop  of  Bayeux  in  1048 ;  fought  with  William 
at  Senlac,  "  in  full  armour  by  the  side  of  his  brother 
and  sovereign,  as  eager  and  ready  as  William  him- 
self to  plunge  in  wherever  in  the  fight  danger  should 
press  most  nearly,"  and  in  the  following  year,  when 
fear  of  foreign  invasions  called  the  new  king  back  to 
Normandy,  he  was  left  in  joint  command  of  England 
with  Fitz-Osbern,  and  given  the  title  of  Earl  of  Kent. 
Thus  we  see  that  Odo  had  two  distinct  provinces — a 

.[79] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

secular  one  in  England,  a  spiritual  one  in  Normandy 
— and  his  rule  seems  to  have  differed  according  to 
the  province  in  which  he  found  himself.  As  Earl 
of  Kent,  the  native  chroniclers  declare  he  was  harsh, 
oppressive  and  tyrannical;  his  followers  were 
lawless,  and  were  dreaded  through  his  territory. 
The  chroniclers  of  Bayeux,  however,  show  him  up 
as  a  munificent  prelate,  generous  in  giving,  a  patron 
of  "  learning  and  good  conversation,"  and,  above  all, 
a  benefactor  to  his  see  in  that  he  rebuilt  the  church 
where  his  flock  worshipped,  and  where  the  crypt  and 
part  of  the  western  towers  still  bear  witness  of  his 
work.  William  of  Poitiers,  the  chronicler  of  all  that 
William  did,  extends  his  panegyrics  to  Odo,  and  de- 
clares that  he  was  appreciated  and  beloved  both  in 
Normandy  and  England.  But  this  probably  results. 
Freeman  points  out,  from  the  immense  admiration 
of  William  the  chronicler  for  William  the  duke, 
which  would  probably — so  partial  were  historians  in 
those  days — lead  him  to  believe  that  not  only  was  the 
Conqueror  impeccable,  but  his  lieutenants  also. 

Caen  follows  as  a  natural  corollary  to  Bayeux,  and 
once  one  has  embarked  upon  a  journey  in  the  Bessin 
and  Calvados  districts,  it  seems  almost  invidious  to 
stay  in  one  town  without  paying  a  visit  to  the  others, 
both  being  so  intimately  bound  up  with  the  story  of 
the  Conqueror. 

[  80  ] 


BAYEUX 

The  churches  of  Caen  have  never  had  any  pre- 
tence to  episcopal  dignity,  and  it  is  curious  that  this 
city,  richer  in  great  churches  than  any  town  in  Nor- 
mandy, should  never  have  been  raised  to  a  bishopric, 
more  especially  considering  the  number  of  cathedral 
towns  which  beside  such  a  city  as  this  rank  as  hardly 
more  than  large  villages,  and  yet  which,  because  they 
possess  one  church  of  importance,  must  take  prece- 
dence of  Caen  and  other  bishopless  cities.  Apart 
from  its  ecclesiastical  dignity,  however,  Caen  should 
be  visited  because  it  is  a  town  both  ancient  and  beauti- 
ful, and  in  memory  of  the  great  duke,  who,  English 
sovereign  though  he  was,  yet  seems  to  come  before  us 
much  more  vividly  in  Normandy  than  in  England. 
It  was  the  Conqueror  who  made  Caen — perhaps  not 
as  it  is  to-day,  but  at  any  rate  as  it  was  in  the 
Middle  Ages.  Caen,  or  Cadomum  as  the  Normans 
found  it,  was  a  tiny  parish  lying  on  the  outskirts  of 
the  Bessin  district,  burnt  probably  by  the  first  Nor- 
man invaders,  and  likewise  included  in  Rolf's  con- 
quests, but  of  too  little  importance  either  to  be 
harmed  by  the  one  or  benefited  by  the  other.  Then 
arose  the  discussion  about  William's  marriage  with 
Matilda,  the  dispensation  granted  by  the  Pope  for 
their  breach  of  canonical  law  and  the  conditions 
under  which  William  might  keep  his  wife — that  the 
duke  and  the  duchess  should  each  build  an  abbey 

[8i  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES    OF    FRANCE 

church  and  foundation  within  the  town  of  Caen,  that 
of  William  to  serve  for  men,  that  of  Matilda  for 
women;  and  forthwith  the  little  town  became  a 
centre  of  attraction,  alive  with  workmen,  visited  no 
doubt  from  time  to  time  by  the  duke  and  duchess 
themselves  in  order  that  they  might  see  how  the 
work  was  going  forward.  The  Abbaye  aux  Dames 
was  the  first  to  be  consecrated.  Matilda  wished  to 
hurry  on  the  work,  probably,  as  one  writer  says,  from 
feminine  impatience  to  complete  her  task.  The 
church  finished  under  her  auspices,  however,  was 
too  quickly  erected  to  be  more  than  a  fragment, 
"  simply  so  much  as  was  necessary  for  the  devotions 
of  the  sisterhood,"  and  its  real  completion  belongs  to 
a  day  later  than  the  time  of  Matilda,  though  her 
original  plan  was  in  all  probability  carried  out  to  the 
end.  William,  however,  took  his  time  over  the 
building  of  his  church,  and  watched  it  to  the  finish. 
It  was  consecrated,  with  the  exception  of  the  two 
western  towers,  by  Lanfranc  in  1077,  and  stands  to- 
day, in  its  strength,  simplicity  and  majesty,  a  fitting 
and  lasting  memorial  of  the  man  who  ruled  England 
and  Normandy  and  kept  them  with  hand  of 
iron. 

"  The  church  of  William,  vast  in  scale,  bold  and 
simple  in  its  design,  disdaining  ornament,  but  never 
sinking  into  rudeness,  is  indeed  a  church  worthy  of 

[  82   ]: 


BAYEUX 

its  founder.  The  minster  of  Matilda,  far  richer  even 
in  its  earliest  parts,  smaller  in  size,  more  delicate  in 
workmanship,  has  nothing  of  the  simplicity  and 
grandeur  and  sense  of  proportion  which  marks  the 
work  of  her  husband.  The  one  is  the  expression  in 
stone  of  the  imperial  will  of  the  conquering  duke; 
the  other  breathes  the  true  spirit  of  his  loving  and 
faithful  duchess." 

The  foundation  of  the  two  great  abbeys  soon 
led  to  a  growing  population  outside  their  walls. 
Houses  were  built  around  the  Trinite  on  the  hill- 
top and  around  Saint  Etienne  in  the  plain;  various 
trades  sprang  up,  we  may  suppose,  within  the  town; 
and  a  castle — always  a  patent  of  nobility  to  any  town 
— was  built  on  the  hill,  where  William  might  lodge 
during  his  visits  to  Caen.  These  visits  became  more 
and  more  frequent  until  Caen  was  elevated  almost  to 
the  rank  of  a  royal  residence;  and  even  when  Duke 
William  became  King  of  England,  he  found  nothing 
in  his  new  kingdom  so  pleasant  as  the  little  city  under 
the  hill.  He  built  walls  all  round  the  town ;  he  con- 
ceded to  the  inhabitants  commercial  privileges  such 
as  were  enjoyed  by  Rouen  and  other  large  cities,  to- 
gether with  the  right  of  holding  fairs,  though  the 
fairs  of  Caen  never  attained  such  celebrity  as  did 
those  at  Troyes ;  and  finally,  it  was  through  the  streets 
of  Caen  that  his  funeral  train  passed,  bearing  the 

[  83  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

Conqueror  to  his  long  rest  in  the  church  which  he 
had  built  in  the  city  which  he  had  loved. 

"  The  death  of  a  king  in  those  days  came  near  to  a 
break-up  of  all  civil  society.  Till  a  new  king  was 
chosen  and  crowned,  there  was  no  longer  a  power 
in  the  land  to  protect  or  to  chastise.  All  bonds  were 
loosed;  all  public  authority  was  in  abeyance;  each 
man  had  to  look  to  his  own  as  best  he  might."  Thus 
is  described  the  state  of  feudal  England  and  feudal 
Normandy  after  the  death  of  the  Conqueror  at 
Rouen.  A  state  of  the  utmost  confusion  prevailed; 
and  apparently  quite  as  an  afterthought,  masses  were 
offered  for  the  soul  of  him  who  so  lately  had  kept  all 
in  so  strict  an  order.  This  confusion  was  not  the  out- 
come of  any  personal  disrespect  to  the  dead  king;  it 
was  simply  a  reaction  consequent  on  the  removal  of 
the  one  great  headstone,  the  one  great  reliance  of  the 
realms  on  both  sides  of  the  Channel.  In  the  meantime 
the  body  of  William  was  borne  to  Caen  to  await 
burial.  A  Norman  knight  of  the  name  of  Herl- 
win  took  upon  himself  the  task  of  ordering  funeral 
rites  proper  to  the  degree  of  such  a  man,  since  neither 
kinsfolk  nor  servants  seemed  willing  to  stir  a  finger. 
Once  at  Caen,  however,  the  Conqueror's  faithful  fol- 
lowers received  their  dead  master  with  all  the  honour 
and  respect  which  they  had  shown  to  him  while  liv- 
ing.   The  procession  started  in  full  pomp  towards 

[  84] 


BAYEUX 

Saint  Stephen's  and  was  met  by  the  Abbot  Gilbert, 
his  clergy,  and  a  number  of  laymen.  The  monks  fell 
into  file,  the  solemn  chant  arose;  but  suddenly  the  or- 
derly progress  was  arrested  by  an  event  as  startling 
as  any  in  the  lifetime  of  the  great  man  they  were 
burying.  As  the  crowds  filled  the  streets,  a  fire  broke 
out  in  one  of  the  houses ;  and  as  in  the  Middle  Ages 
fires  were  easier  to  kindle  and  harder  to  quench  than 
in  later  days,  the  flames  spread  along  from  house  to 
house,  till  it  seemed  as  though  a  sheet  of  fire  were 
pursuing  the  Conqueror  to  his  grave.  Soon  only  the 
monks  remained  of  the  great  company  that  had  set  out 
from  the  monastery,  and  they  went  on  apparently  as 
though  nothing  had  happened,  whilst  the  clergy,  the 
lay  helpers  and  the  rest  of  the  crowd  dispersed  to  save 
their  belongings  from  destruction,  the  dead  man  for- 
gotten in  the  very  real  and  living  present  need. 
"  Thus  were  the  candles  of  William's  churching  at 
Mantes  avenged  by  the  candles  of  his  burial  at  Caen." 
At  Saint  Stephen's  were  waiting  a  goodly  company 
of  bishops,  Lanfranc  of  Canterbury,  Odo  of  Bay- 
eux,  William's  brother;  Gilbert  of  Evreux,  the 
preacher;  and  Gilbert  of  Lisieux,  learned  in  medi- 
cine; with  Geoflfroy  de  Montbray,  bishop  of 
Coutances;  and  the  saintly  pupil  of  Lanfranc,  An- 
selm  of  Bee.  The  scene  which  followed  is  an  interest- 
ing one.    The  funeral  mass  was  sung,  the  body  being 

[  85  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

borne  along  the  nave  and  chancel  up  to  the  altar;  then 
Gilbert  of  Lisieux  spoke  the  funeral  oration,  setting 
forth,  as  was  the  custom,  the  tale  of  William's  battles 
and  conquests,  of  his  glory  in  war  and  his  firm  rule 
in  peace,  of  his  defence  of  the  Church  and  his  zeal 
against  her  enemies.  "  Pray,  O  people,  that  his  sins 
may  be  forgiven  before  God,  and  if  he  had  sinned 
against  you  in  anything,  forgive  him  that  also  your- 
selves." At  the  close  of  the  oration  all  heads  turned 
towards  Ascelin,  the  son  of  Arthur,  as  he  stood  forth, 
and  forbade  the  body  to  be  buried  in  land  which  the 
Conqueror  had  wrested  from  his  father.  "  I  .  .  . 
claim  the  land;  I  challenge  it  as  mine  before  all  men, 
and  in  the  name  of  God  I  forbid  that  the  body  of 
the  robber  be  covered  with  my  mould,  or  that  he  be 
buried  within  the  bounds  of  mine  inheritance." 
Certainly  here  seemed  some  just  impediment.  An 
inquiry,  necessarily  brief  because  of  the  time  and 
place,  was  held,  and  Ascelin's  witness  proved  true; 
and  then  and  there  a  sum  was  paid  down  to  the  claim- 
ant. Thus  the  great  abbey  which  he  had  built  was 
not  lawfully  his  own  until  the  day  of  his  burial. 

Another  memory  of  the  Conquerer  in  Caen  re- 
mains in  the  Truce  of  God  which  he  imposed 
upon  the  Seigneurs  of  Normandy.  Comparing  this 
"  Trenga  Dei "  with  the  Crusades,  Freeman  says : 
"  The  call  to  the  Crusade  fell  in  with  every  temper 

[  86] 


BAYEUX 

of  the  times;  the  proclamation  of  the  Truce  of  God 
fell  in  with  only  one,  and  that  its  least  powerful  side. 
Good  and  bad  men  alike  were  led  by  widely  differ- 
ent motives  to  rush  to  the  Holy  War.  The  men  who 
endeavoured  to  obey  the  Truce  of  God  must  often 
have  found  themselves  the  helpless  victims  of  those 
who  despised  it."  The  Truce  was  preached  first  in 
Aquitaine  in  1054,  and  Normandy  was  almost  the 
last  country  to  receive  it.  When  it  reached  the  north 
of  France  it  was  in  a  somewhat  different  form  to 
that  in  which  it  had  started.  The  early  preachers 
began  by  denouncing  all  private  warfare;  but  even 
in  an  age  quickly  fired  by  enthusiasm  for  a  new 
movement,  and  more  especially  for  a  religious  move- 
ment, obedience  to  this  decree  was  found  to  be  im- 
possible. Men  had  hated  one  another  too  long  to 
leap  suddenly  into  a  state  of  perpetual  love;  and  the 
decree  was  modified,  imposing  abstention  from  pri- 
vate quarrels  from  Wednesday  evening  to  Monday 
morning  in  each  week.  Even  this  seemed  at  first  too 
much  for  the  Norman  spirit — "  the  luxury  of  de- 
struction was  dear  to  the  Norman  mind  " — but  the 
preaching  of  Bishops  Richard  and  Hagano  at  length 
took  effect,  and  at  Caen,  in  1042,  was  convoked  the 
famous  Council  which  was  formally  to  receive  the 
Truce,  and  command  its  observance  all  through  the 
land. 

[  87  ]^ 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

Since  then  more  than  eight  centuries  have  gone 
by;  and  yet  to-day  no  place  seems  to  breathe  forth 
the  spirit  of  the  great  duke  as  does  Caen.  In  the 
castle  on  the  cliffs  at  Falaise  he  was  born,  at  Rouen 
was  his  seat  and  capital,  at  Bayeux  his  victories  are 
preserved  in  a  lasting  memorial;  but  at  Caen  he 
lived  and  lies  buried,  at  Caen  he  built  houses  and 
churches  and  city  walls,  and  at  Caen  we  may  still 
think  of  him,  not  as  the  usurper  of  Harold's  throne, 
not  as  the  oppressor  of  Hereward  the  Saxon  and  the 
stern,  uncompromising  lord  of  the  English,  but  as 
the  hero  of  the  Normans,  a  figure  more  commanding 
even  than  the  pioneer  Rolf,  and  one  whose  best  praise 
lies  in  those  memories  of  "  le  Conquerant "  that  still 
haunt  the  Normandy  of  to-day. 

After  William's  death  the  history  of  Caen  is  prac- 
tically the  history  of  every  town  in  Northern  France. 
He  had  provided  it  with  a  commerce  of  its  own,  so 
that  it  might  be  strengthened  from  within,  and  he 
had  fortified  it  against  assault  from  without;  it  fell 
into  English  hands,  like  its  neighbour  cities,  both 
under  Edward  III.  and  Henry  V. ;  it  was  ravaged 
by  the  terrible  "  Black  Death  "  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  and  harassed  by  the  League  wars  and  stirred 
up  by  the  revolt  of  the  "Nu-pieds"  under  Louis 
XIIL 

Finally,  we  find  the  Girondist  party  flying  from 

[88  ] 


BAYEUX 

the  "  Convention  "  at  Paris  and  setting  up  an  insur- 
rection in  the  provinces,  making  Caen  their  head- 
quarters; and  one  more  page  from  the  awful  book 
of  the  Revolution  shows  us  Charlotte  Corday  set- 
ting out  from  Caen,  grim,  ungirlish,  filled  only  with 
her  dreadful  purpose,  down  the  long,  white  road  to 
Paris — which  to  her  meant  Marat. 


[89] 


Olljapt^r  Btnm 


SAINT-LO   AND   COUTANCES 

XN  very  early  days  there  was  in  Northern 
Gaul  a  little  city  on  a  hill-top,  with  a 
river  running  below,  and  this  city  was 
called  Briovira,  after  the  name  of  the 
river  Vire.  But  in  Christian  times  a  certain  bishop 
of  Coutances,  a  native  of  Briovira,  extended  his  pas- 
toral protection  to  his  birthplace,  and  called  it  by  his 
own  name,  Laudus,  or  L6,  by  which  it  is  known  to 
this  day,  although  the  bishopstool  has  no  longer  a 
place  there.  Saint-L6  does  not  strike  one,  either  at 
first  sight  or  afterwards,  as  being  a  cathedral  city. 
The  first  view,  from  the  railway,  is  a  very  rural  one, 
and  from  an  artist's  point  of  view  the  place  is  more 
or  less  ideal,  possessing  as  it  does  two  important 
qualifications  of  a  "  paintable  "  town — it  has  a  river, 
and  it  stands  on  a  hill.  Only  the  outskirts  of  Saint- 
L6  lie  about  the  waterside;  the  real  town  is  higher 
up  on  the  steep  frowning  clifif,  and  the  Rue  Torteron 
straggles   across  the  bridge   and  up   the  hill,   and 

[90] 


ST.  l6  and  coutances 

finally,  by  means  of  a  steep  little  alley,  leads  out  into 
the  Place  Ferrier,  where  stands  the  Cathedral. 
Here,  too,  the  Saturday  market  is  held,  and  then  the 
hill-top,  usually  quiet  and  deserted,  blossoms  into 
life,  and  the  Rue  Torteron  is  all  a-clatter  with 
farmers'  carts  and  the  scurry  of  sabots.  The  western 
half  of  the  market-place  is  known  as  the  "  Place  des 
Beaux-Regards,'*  and  from  it,  as  its  name  testifies, 
stretches  a  wide  view  of  the  river,  fields,  and  wooded 
hills  beyond;  here,  also,  is  the  fountain,  crowned  by 
Leduc's  graceful  bronze  peasant-girl,  with  water- 
vessel  poised  easily  over  her  shoulder. 

Saint-L6  was  a  Huguenot  stronghold  during  the 
wars  of  the  League,  and  the  cliflf-face  still  retains  a 
fragment  of  the  old  defences,  the  Tour  Beauregard, 
an  ivy-covered  ruin  clinging  to  the  rock,  which 
probably  served  as  a  watch-tower  in  times  when  the 
meadows  of  the  Vire  were  not  so  peaceful  as  they 
are  to-day. 

The  year  1575  saw  the  siege  which  the  little  town 
counts  among  the  great  events  of  its  history,  when 
Colombieres,  the  Huguenot,  held  out  so  bravely 
against  the  Catholic  army.  Colombieres  had 
marched  into  Saint-L6  some  months  before  in  order 
to  place  a  garrison  there  in  case  of  assault,  and  the 
townspeople  welcomed  him  almost  as  a  protecting 
angel.    In  the  next  year  the  enemy's  forces  marched 

[91  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

up  to  the  Vire  under  Matignon,  and  demanded  the 
surrender  of  the  garrison.  Colombieres  sent  back  a 
defiant  message  in  answer,  and  the  enemy's  guns  were 
soon  thundering  about  the  rocks  above  the  river. 
Saint-L6  happens  to  be  guarded  by  water  on  three 
sides — on  two  by  tributary  streams,  on  the  third  by 
the  Vire  itself,  and  this  western  side  is  further 
strengthened  by  the  steep  precipice,  falling  sheer 
down  to  what  is  now  the  Basse  Ville.  Matignon  de- 
termined to  take  a  bold  line  and  attack  the  Tour 
Beauregard  as  well  as  the  Tour  de  la  Rose,  which 
stood  in  a  more  approachable  part.  All  day  the 
artillery  played  upon  the  cliff-face,  and  all  day 
Colombieres  cheered  on  his  men  to  the  defence,  when 
a  breach  at  the  Tour  Beauregard  had  considerably 
detracted  from  their  strongest  position.  At  last  the 
gallant  leader,  springing  upon  the  ramparts,  braved 
the  enemy's  fire,  and  fell  dead  before  their  eyes 
rather  than  suffer  the  indignity  of  surrender.  When 
his  inspiring  presence  was  gone  from  their  midst  the 
Huguenots  seemed  to  lose  heart;  their  defence 
wavered,  their  fire  became  less  fierce,  and  at  the  end 
the  Catholics  stormed  the  rock  and  poured  into  the 
market-place. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  during  the  siege,  as 
at  an  earlier  one  at  Beauvais,  the  women  of  the 
town  signalised  themselves  by  the  good  service  they 

[  92  ] 


ST.    LO   AND    COUTANCES 

rendered,  though  it  was  certainly  service  of  a  blood- 
thirsty order,  since  it  consisted  in  pouring  down  the 
terrible  streams  of  boiling  pitch  and  lead  upon  the 
heads  of  the  besiegers;  a  mode  of  defence,  however, 
very  often  resorted  to  by  those  who  did  not  use 
firearms. 

Traces  of  Huguenot  days  can  still  be  seen  in  the 
west  front  of  the  Cathedral,  which  has  evidently 
been  defaced  by  some  fanatical  hand.  The  irregu- 
larity of  its  porches  gives  to  this  fagade  a  curious 
one-sided  appearance,  that  on  the  north  having  a 
round  arch  and  the  central  and  southern  arches 
being  pointed.  The  two  towers  are  of  different 
periods.  In  the  seventeenth  century,  when  the 
Cathedral  was  rebuilt,  the  perforated  stone  spires 
were  added,  the  architect  finding  his  inspiration 
in  those  at  Bayeux  and  Caen.  The  best  view  of 
these  is  from  the  Ville  Basse,  where  they  come 
remarkably  well  into  the  picture,  standing  high 
above  the  grey  roofs. 

Here  the  Cathedral-church  is,  as  usual,  the  centre 
of  all  that  there  is  of  antiquity  in  the  town.  There 
is  one  especially  beautiful  timber  house,  known  as 
the  Maison  Dieu,  some  little  distance  from  the 
west  front;  north  and  south  of  the  church  are 
various  narrow  streets — the  Rue  de  la  Porte  DoUee 
runs  over  the  stream  of  the  same  name,  and  under 

[93  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

a  curious  old  gateway  tower;  the  Rue  Henri 
Amiard  leads  to  the  precincts  of  the  Cathedral,  the 
south  flank  and  its  outward  trend  being  well  seen 
from  here;  but  there  is  nothing  very  tangible  in 
the  way  of  antiquity,  and  one  has  an  impression  that 
when  the  bishop  departed  from  Saint-L6  he  must 
have  taken  with  him  the  soul  of  the  place. 

Notre  Dame  de  Saint-L6  has  a  very  unusual  and 
original  plan,  widening  towards  the  east  and  adding 
another  aisle  to  the  north  and  south  ambulatories. 
On  the  north  side  is  its  chief  curiosity,  an  outdoor 
pulpit,  built  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  and 
probably  used  by  Huguenot  preachers,  to  whom  a 
sermon  was  a  sermon,  whether  preached  under  a 
vaulted  roof  or  the  open  sky.  What  strikes  one 
most  about  the  interior  of  the  church  is  its  want 
of  light.  The  nave  is  absolutely  unlighted,  having 
neither  triforium  nor  clerestory,  and  the  aisles  have 
only  one  tier  of  large  windows,  whose  glass  is  old 
and  very  fine,  though  in  most  cases  pieced  to- 
gether; the  nave  piers  are  massive,  with  a  cluster 
of  three  shafts;  those  of  the  choir  are  quite  simple, 
and  have  one  noticeable  feature,  the  absence  of 
capitals,  the  vault  mouldings  dying  away  into  the 
pier. 

Like  Saint-L6,  Coutances  is  a  city  built  on  a  hill, 
and  has  therefore  a  peculiar  charm  all  its  own.    The 

[  94] 


THE  CATHEDRAL  FRONT,  ST.  LO 


i  •  •    ,  ,• 


ST.  l6  and  coutances 

steep  hill  rises  very  impressively  from  the  rolling 
country  below,  showing  the  Cathedral  on  the  height, 
the  towers  of  St.  Pierre  and  the  grey  houses  and 
apple  orchards  on  the  lower  slope.  As  a  town  it 
has  more  to  say  for  itself  than  Saint- L6;  small 
though  it  is,  in  respect  of  the  part  it  has  played  in 
the  history  of  its  surroundings  it  can  hold  its  own 
with  many  larger  towns.  Coutances  on  its  granite 
rock  is  the  watch-tower  of  the  flat  marshy  Cotentin. 
It  looks  out  to  sea  on  the  one  side  and  over  its  subject 
towns  on  the  other;  it  has  seen  the  sun  flash  on  the 
winged  helmets  of  the  Danes,  on  the  spears  of 
Englishmen  of  Agincourt,  on  the  grim  figures  of  the 
Huguenot  leaders  in  the  days  of  the  League,  as  each 
in  their  day  marched  over  the  plains  to  Coutances 
for  the  sake  of  plunder,  conquest  and  religion.  Even 
in  Roman  times  it  was  of  importance;  the  Gauls 
called  it  Cosedia  of  the  Unelli,  but  towards  the  end 
of  the  third  century  Constantius  Chlorus  fortified 
the  town  and  called  it  after  his  name,  which  it  bears 
at  the  present  day — Constantius — Constance — 
Coutances. 

The  son  anH  successor  of  this  Constantius  was 
Constantine  the  Great,  from  whose  reign  dates  the 
spread  of  Christianity  over  Western  Europe;  and 
the  Cotentin,  as  an  old  saying  goes,  now  found  itself 
divided  between  Saint  Martin  and  Sainte  Maria. 

[95  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES    OF    FRANCE 

Churches  were  built  all  over  the  land;  bishops — ■ 
every  one  a  saint  in  these  early  days — followed  the 
light  of  St.  Augustine  in  England,  and  journeyed 
about  the  country  making  conversions  and  working 
miracles. 

In  the  fifth  century  Coutances  received  its 
first  great  church,  the  basilica  of  St.  Eureptiolus, 
built,  according  to  local  tradition,  upon  the  founda- 
tions of  a  pagan  temple.  Later  on,  Norman  invaders 
did  their  best  to  undo  the  good  work  of  the  Christian 
bishops,  and  we  hear  that  the  bishops  of  Coutances 
in  particular  were  compelled  to  take  refuge  in  Rouen 
for  a  century  and  a  half,  until  the  peninsula  finally 
passed  into  the  hands  of  William  Longsword  in  931, 
and  for  a  time  the  churches  had  peace. 

The  barons  of  the  Cotentin  played  a  considerable 
part  in  the  Norman  Conquest  of  England,  being 
among  William's  most  loyal  supporters.  Taillefer, 
the  famous  warrior  at  the  battle  of  Senlac,  the 
seigneurs  of  Pommeraye,  Blainville,  Pierrepont,  all 
kept  up  the  honour  of  Coutances  in  the  lands  across 
the  water,  as  well  as  Bishop  de  Montbray,  who,  like 
Odo  of  Bayeux,  held  the  office  of  a  bishop  in  his  own 
country  and  of  a  feudal  lord  in  England.  History 
has  it  on  record  that  he  held  no  less  than  two  hundred 
and  eighty  fiefs  in  the  conquered  country,  besides  the 
lands  which  belonged  to  his  ecclesiastical  jurisdic- 

[96] 


ST.  l6  and  coutances 

tion  in  the  Cotentin.  After  the  death  of  the  Con- 
queror various  pretenders  to  the  dukedom  of 
Normandy  arose,  and  Coutances  suffered  from  the 
local  wars,  falling  into  the  hands  of  Fulk  of  Anjou 
and  being  retaken  by  Henry  I.,  and  to  complete  the 
harassed  state  of  the  Cotentin  a  dreadful  famine 
spread  over  the  district  and  reduced  the  town  to  a 
state  of  the  utmost  misery.  In  1203  it  was  joined  to 
France  with  the  rest  of  Normandy;  but  this  prac- 
tically meant  an  entire  renunciation  of  its  freedom. 
Philip  Augustus  and  Louis  IX.  confiscated  its  seign- 
eurial  rights  and  set  a  French  governor  to  rule  over 
the  country  instead  of  the  Norman  lords,  though  the 
latter  king  probably  made  up,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
people  of  Coutances,  for  these  encroachments  by 
paying  a  visit  to  their  town,  which  honour  is  remem- 
bered by  them  to-day  not  only  as  an  act  of  royal 
condescension  but  of  saintly  beneficence. 

In  the  wars  of  Edward  III.  and  Henry  V. 
Coutances  had  its  share.  Standing  in  the  western 
corner  of  Normandy,  the  town  came  at  the  end  of  a 
long  line  of  strongholds  which  one  after  the  other 
had  surrendered  to  the  English  assault.  Valognes 
fell,  then  the  Fonts  d'Ouve,  then  Carentan  and 
Saint-L6.  Next  Edward  turned  off  towards  Caen 
and  followed  on  to  Crecy;  so  that  it  seemed  at  first 
as  though  Coutances  would  escape  altogether.    How- 

[  97] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

ever,  the  treachery  of  one  of  the  neighbouring  lords 
was  to  attempt  what  the  enemy  had  left  undone.  In 
1358  there  lived  in  the  chateau  of  Saint-Sauveur-le- 
Vicomte  a  certain  Geoffrey  d^Harcourt,  surnamed 
Le  Boiteux,  whose  nephew  had  been  treacherously 
murdered  at  Rouen.  D'Harcourt  resolved  to  re- 
venge the  crime  upon  the  city  of  Coutances.  He  got 
together  an  army  with  the  help  of  the  King  of 
Navarre,  and  drew  up  his  troops  outside  the  town, 
with  heavy  machines  for  battery;  and  he  had  suc- 
ceeded in  forcing  a  breach,  when  the  royal  army, 
arriving  at  an  opportune  moment,  upset  his  schemes 
and  sent  him  back  to  his  chateau  of  Saint-Sauveur. 
In  the  latter  part  of  the  war,  however,  this  good 
fortune  left  the  city.  After  his  victory  at  Agincourt 
the  English  king  marched  westward  to  subdue  the 
towns  in  the  far  corner  of  Normandy,  and  Coutances 
fell  into  his  hands  in  141 8,  remaining  under  the 
same  rule  until  the  Constable  de  Richemont  drove 
out  the  English  in  1449 ;  and  it  is  said  that  to  all  those 
of  the  inhabitants  who  had  remained  faithful  to  his 
cause  Charles  VII.  made  reparation  for  all  the 
spoliation  they  had  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the 
English.  This  may,  of  course,  have  emanated  from 
that  prince's  indolent  good  nature,  which  did  not 
object  to  granting  a  favour  where  it  was  not  too  much 
trouble;  but  considering  the  utter  laziness  of  Charles 

[98] 


ST.  l6  and  coutances 

It  seems  unlikely  that  he  should  have  troubled  him- 
self to  this  extent  in  the  cause  of  a  little  city  in  the 
west,  far  away  from  Paris,  when  he  was  occupied 
with  the  new  experience  of  being  king  in  fact  as  well 
as  name. 

The  League  Wars  were  the  next  to  touch 
Coutances.  Bricqueville-Colombicres,  who,  as  we 
saw,  was  to  meet  a  soldier's  death  upon  the  walls 
of  Saint  L6  some  years  later,  took  possession  of  the 
town  in  the  name  of  the  Protestants  in  1561,  and 
as  the  standards  of  both  armies  were  followed  by 
crowds  of  half-savage,  ignorant  peasants,  thirsty  for 
plunder  of  any  sort,  Coutances  found  itself  over- 
run as  it  had  been  by  a  tribe  of  wild  beasts.  Men, 
women  and  children  were  massacred  without 
quarter,  churches  and  houses  were  rifled  and,  worse 
than  all,  the  beautiful  Cathedral  of  de  Montbray 
suffered  a  like  fate  and  was  despoiled  of  sculpture, 
carving,  statues  and  sainted  relics,  the  bishop  and 
clergy  being  struck  down  before  they  could  attempt 
to  quell  these  barbarian  inroads.  This  scene  was 
repeated  two  years  later,  when  Colombieres  burnt 
part  of  the  town,  and  again  in  1566.  After  such 
treatment,  it  is  hardly  to  be  wondered  at  that  the 
inhabitants  of  Coutances  declared  for  the  League, 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  this  disobedience  caused  the 
temporary  removal  of  both  their  civil  and  seign- 

[99] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

eurial  rights,  the  one  passing  to  Saint-L6  and  the 
other  to  Granville. 

In  the  reign  of  Louis  XIII.  Richelieu  imposed 
upon  the  inhabitants  of  Normandy  the  hateful  tax 
known  as  the  Gabelle,  and  by  this  means  stirred  up 
the  revolt  of  the  "Nu-pieds."  Coutances  shared 
in  several  of  the  subsequent  disorders.  One 
Poupinel,  charged  with  a  commission  from  the 
Parliament  of  Rouen,  was  murdered  in  the  streets 
of  Avranches;  and  the  tax-gatherer  at  Coutances, 
fearing  a  like  fate,  armed  all  his  followers  in  the 
event  of  a  possible  disturbance.  The  worthy  man's 
extra  precaution,  however,  proved  to  do  more  harm 
than  good;  his  servants  in  their  excess  of  zeal  saw 
an  enemy  in  every  harmless  farmer  come  to  do  his 
marketing  in  the  town,  and  a  deadly  weapon  in  every 
ashen  stick,  and  the  pitch  of  excitement  grew  so  high 
that  when  the  bell  of  Saint  Pierre  began  to  ring  for 
a  christening,  they  took  it  for  the  warning  peal  of 
the  tocsin,  and  rushed  out  into  the  streets  with  loud 
cries,  brandishing  their  weapons  and  assaulting  in 
their  excitement  every  innocent  burgher  whom  they 
met. 

As  was  but  natural,  this  unprovoked  attack 
roused  the  dormant  spirit  of  revolt  among  the 
people;  Nicolle,  the  unfortunate  tax-gatherer, 
found  out  his  mistake  too  late;  the  "Nu-pieds," 

[  loo  ] 


ST.  l6  and  coutances 

under  their  chief,  Le  Sauvage,  burnt  down  his 
house  and  murdered  his  brother;  and  for  a  few 
days,  until  the  popular  fury  had  quieted  down, 
Coutances  was  thrown  into  a  state  of  revolution. 
The  terrible  disturbances  of  the  next  century, 
however,  did  not  work  much  havoc  here.  Only 
twenty-three  persons  in  all  were  sent  to  the 
guillotine  from  Coutances  during  the  Terror,  and 
most  of  these,  we  are  told,  were  burghers  and  not 
aristocrats,  and  the  victims  of  private  vengeance 
rather  than  of  public  fury. 

Coutances  had  a  good  many  notable  bishops. 
There  was  Eureptiolus,  mentioned  above;  there 
were  Laudus,  the  founder  of  Saint-L6;  and  Robert 
of  Lisieux,  who  built  his  church  on  the  foundations 
of  the  old  basilica;  and  Geoff roy  de  Montbray, 
whose  best  life-work  was  given  to  finishing  what 
Robert  had  begun;  Hugues  de  Morville,  who 
restored  the  Cathedral  in  the  thirteenth  century;  and 
energetic,  tenacious  Geoffroy  Herbert,  who  was  pos- 
sessed with  a  perfect  mania  for  building,  in  and  out 
of  Coutances,  and  to  whom  the  town  owes  the  church 
of  St.  Pierre. 

The  Cathedral  at  Coutances  was  founded  by  the 
widow  of  Richard  the  Fearless  in  1030,  and 
completed  towards  the  end  of  the  century  by 
Geoffroy  de  Montbray,  William  the  Conqueror's 

[  loi  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

fighting  bishop.  After  the  union  of  Normandy  to 
France  it  was  rebuilt,  and  the  work  of  restoration 
extended  into  the  fifteenth  century.  Entering  by 
the  north  porch  one  is  struck  by  the  beauty  of  the 
doorway,  whose  overhanging  mouldings  and  shafts 
are  designed  with  great  elegance  and  freedom. 
The  English  type  of  capital,  with  round  abacus 
and  vigorous  foliation,  reminds  one  of  the  cathedrals 
of  Salisbury  and  Lincoln;  and  the  tympanum  with 
its  sadly-mutilated  figures  is  carried  on  a  corbel 
table  of  great  beauty.  The  interior  elevation  of 
the  bays  is  composed  of  three  features — pier  arches, 
a  fine  triforium  with  quatrefoil  balustrade,  and  a 
rather  small  clerestory  with  a  passage-way  crossing 
its  base.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  exquisite  glass 
in  the  cathedral,  especially  in  the  transepts.  In 
the  choir  the  love  of  high  clerestories,  admitting  as 
much  light  as  possible  to  the  chancel,  to  the  almost 
complete  extinction  of  the  triforium,  shows  itself 
here  as  in  many  other  churches  already  noticed. 
The  upper  windows  are  in  two  planes,  with  a  light 
shaft  supporting  the  interior  arches. 

In  the  ambulatory  there  is  what  looks  like  a  blind 
stone  bay,  corbelled  out  and  resting  on  the  capitals 
of  the  columns.  Probably  this  is  a  staircase  leading 
to  the  upper  passages  of  the  triforium  and  clerestory. 
The  lantern,  which  is  octagon  in  plan,  has  three 

[    102   ] 


THE  SOUTH  PORCH  OF  THK  CATHEDRAL,  COUTANCES 


ST.  l6  and  coutances 

tiers  of  arches,  the  over-hanging  sides  being  sup- 
ported by  a  simple  pendentive  with  very  slight 
mouldings. 

Beyond  the  Place  du  Parvis,  where  the  Cathedral 
stands,  is  the  Musee,  once  the  house  of  Quesnel 
Moriniere,  who  at  his  death  left  to  the  town  both 
house  and  garden.  The  latter  is  now  converted 
into  a  Jardin  Public,  which  every  French  town, 
however  small,  seems  to  possess;  and  sitting  or 
walking  amidst  its  shady  alleys  and  green  lawns, 
with  catalpas  and  orange  trees  in  full  bloom  over- 
head, one  feels  very  kindly  disposed  towards  the 
good  citizen  who  planted  them  and  left  this 
possession  for  the  enjoyment  of  his  fellows. 

During  our  stay  at  Coutances  one  incident  took 
place  which  may  be  interesting  as  showing  how 
mediaeval  customs  still  survive  in  these  little  towns. 
In  the  middle  of  the  night  we  were  roused  from 
sleep  by  the  blast  of  a  bugle  in  the  street  below.  This 
was  presently  followed  by  a  roll  of  drums  and  shouts 
of  "Au  feu!  au  feu!"  The  deep-toned  bell  of  St. 
Nicolas  then  took  up  the  alarm  and  echoed  out  far 
and  wide  its  warning  notes.  In  a  moment  the  town 
was  awake.  Heads  peered  out  at  every  window, 
and  the  street  was  soon  alive  with  the  tread  of  hurry- 
ing feet;  cafe  and  cabaret  furnished  their  contingent 
to  the  excited  crowd,  and  even  children  were  brought 

[  103  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

out  of  their  beds  to  gaze  down  the  blazing  street. 
The  gregarious  and  sympathetic  Frenchman  can 
never  allow  any  event  to  take  place,  be  it  funeral, 
festival  or  fire,  without  calling  all  his  friends  to  assist 
at  it;  and  the  general  turn-out  into  the  streets  re- 
minds one  of  the  thousands  of  Londoners  who  left 
their  beds  to  celebrate  the  relief  of  Mafeking. 


[  104  ] 


a 


LE   MANS 

*  *  ^^"^^ACH  land  and  city,"  says  Freeman,  "  has 
its  special  characteristics  which  dis- 
tinguish it  from  others.  One  is  famous 
for  its  church  and  its  bishops,  another 
for  its  commonwealth,  another  for  its  princes.  Le 
Mans  has  the  special  privilege  of  being  alike  famous 
for  all  three."  At  Le  Mans,  church,  counts  and 
commune  have  each  made  a  separate  mark  upon  the 
roll  of  French  history.  The  communal  power  gave 
the  town  strength  within  itself;  the  counts  of  Maine, 
whose  line  dates  back  to  the  time  of  Hugh  Capet, 
made  of  it  a  mighty  feudal  possession ;  and  the  great 
church  above  the  Sarthe,  whose  traditions  have  been 
handed  down  even  from  Saint  Martin  of  Tours, 
stood  apart  on  its  hill-crest  and  watched  over  the 
city. 

As  was  usually  the  case  in  these  powerful  cities 
the  commune  was  the  last  element  to  arise  at 
Le   Mans;    before    its    appearance   we    find    both 

[  105  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

Church  and  State  fully  established  on  the  hill. 
Julian  built  his  church  under  the  rule  of  Trajan; 
Defensor,  the  local  ruler,  lived  in  his  palace  side 
by  side  with  the  great  missionary  bishop  who  had 
converted  him  to  Christianty;  and  after  him  came 
the  line  of  counts  who  seem  to  have  been  always  at 
war  either  with  Normandy  on  the  one  side  or  with 
Anjou  on  the  other.  Considering  these  two  power- 
ful neighbours,  it  is  wonderful  what  a  prestige  Maine 
did  succeed  in  establishing,  by  the  help  of  her 
bishops,  and  also  by  the  help  of  the  strong  fortress 
which  was  her  capital  city.  But  in  the  reign  of  the 
prince  from  Liguria,  Azo,  to  whom  Maine  had  de- 
scended in  an  indirect  line,  a  third  factor  thrust  itself 
into  the  growing  fabric  of  the  city.  It  may  have 
been  the  example  of  Italian  states  which  the  coming 
of  an  Italian  ruler  had  brought  before  the  Ceno- 
mannians  more  forcibly;  it  may  have  been  the  en- 
croachments of  the  Countess  Gersendis,  regent  in  the 
absence  of  her  husband;  but  from  whatever  cause,  it 
was  certain  that  memories  of  the  municipal  rights 
of  ancient  Gaul  were  being  kindled  amongst  the 
people — murmurs  were  heard  of  a  time  when,  under 
the  Roman  yoke,  a  prince  did  not  signify  a  tyrant— 
and  presently  the  Cenomannian  burghers  took  the 
law  into  their  own  hands  and  met  together  to  de- 
clare   their    freedom    and — a    testimony    of    their 

[  io6  ] 


>  J      1  ) 

>    ,  1       5  > 

>  »     5   J   f      > 


ST.  PIERRE.  COUTANCES 


LE   MANS 

strength — compelled  Goeffrey  of  Mayenne  and  all 
the  surrounding  princes  to  swear  their  civic  oath. 
Thus  was  founded  the  earliest  commune  in  Gaul, 
and  when,  soon  afterwards,  the  Conqueror  subdued 
Le  Mans  and  the  whole  state  of  Maine,  the  city  still 
retained  its  newly  won  privileges,  William  binding 
himself  over  to  respect  and  observe  the  customs  per- 
taining to  the  same,  the  ancient  "  justices "  of  the 
city.  A  threefold  history  of  this  kind  leads  one 
naturally  to  look  for  a  threefold  interest  within  the 
town  itself;  yet  this  is  lacking  in  the  city  of  to-day — 
its  past  glories  lie  rather  in  tradition  and  associa- 
tion than  in  anything  more  tangible.  The  church 
still  stands  upon  the  hill,  but  it  stands  alone.  Almost 
every  trace  of  feudal  prince  and  ancient  commune 
has  been  swept  away,  and  the  old  Le  Mans  has 
become  a  city  of  solid  white-painted  buildings  and 
clean,  sunny  places.  By  the  river-side  and  near  the 
Cathedral  a  few  old  houses  and  crooked  alleys  still 
remain,  and  here  too  may  be  seen  fragments  of  the 
old  city  walls,  built  by  Roman  forethought  in  the 
third  and  fourth  centuries.  These  ramparts  have 
stood  the  town  in  good  stead.  From  its  position  and 
importance,  Le  Mans  has  always  been  coveted  by 
the  enemy,  and  since  the  days  of  Clovis  down  to  the 
war  with  Prussia  it  has  known  the  tread  of  besieging 
hosts  at  its  gates.    The  Normans  had  it  under  the 

[  107  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

Conqueror,  and  lost  it  under  his  son,  Duke  Robert; 
during  the  Hundred  Years'  War  it  was  besieged  five 
times;  the  Huguenots  took  it  during  the  wars  of  the 
League;  after  the  fall  of  the  Bourbon  monarchy  it 
was  seized  in  desperation  by  the  Royalists  of  La 
Vendee,  but  retaken  by  Marceau;  and  nearer  our 
own  day  comes  the  terrible  "week  of  battles"  in 
January,  1871,  during  which  the  Prussians  occupied 
Le  Mans  and  defeated  the  army  of  the  Loire  so 
severely  as  to  destroy  all  hope  of  relieving  Paris. 

"  In  the  second  half  of  the  campaign,  in  the 
contest  against  France  .  .  .  both  belligerents  kept 
the  same  goal  before  their  eyes — Paris:  the  one  in 
order  to  dictate  peace  from  within  the  walls  of  the 
conquered  capital,  the  other  in  order  to  gain  that 
victory  which  would  give  to  the  war  the  long  and 
eagerly-desired  change  of  fortune."  During  the 
winter  of  1870  the  army  of  the  Loire  had  set  out  to 
reach  Paris  from  Orleans;  but  a  succession  of  de- 
feats drove  it  back  to  the  Loire,  from  whence  it  was 
to  retreat  upon  Le  Mans.  Pursuit  did  not  follow  at 
once.  The  Prussian  Army,  under  Prince  Frederick 
Charles,  waited  between  Orleans  and  Vendome  until 
the  New  Year,  when  an  advance  was  ordered,  and 
the  three  divisions  of  the  army  marched  upon  Le 
Mans  by  their  respective  roads.  Passing  Vendome, 
which  was  the  scene  of  a  sharp  engagement  with  the 

[  108  ] 


LE   MANS 

enemy,  they  crossed  the  country  between  the  Loire 
and  the  Sarthe  with  some  difficulty;  bad  weather 
had  made  the  roads  almost  impassable,  and  the  dis- 
trict was  cut  up  into  vineyards,  farmsteads  and  small 
valleys.  "  The  invader  rarely  gets  a  general  view 
of  the  country  even  from  elevated  positions ;  he  must 
renounce  any  plan  of  acting  with  large  displayed 
masses,  especially  in  the  case  of  artillery;  the  action 
of  cavalry  is  restricted  to  the  roads,  and  the  whole 
burden  of  the  contest  falls  exclusively  on  the 
infantry."  Fighting  their  way  through  the  scattered 
French  forces  two  divisions  managed  to  come  within 
ten  miles  of  Le  Mans  by  January  9,  and  on  the  next 
day  the  battle  began.  The  Prussian  watchword  was 
"  Forward  with  all  speed,"  and  such  speed  did  they 
make  that  at  the  end  of  three  days  they  had  advanced 
upon  the  French  in  their  strong  position,  keeping 
always  to  the  maxim,  "  Stand  firm  in  the  centre  and 
act  on  the  offensive  at  the  two  wings." 

"  On  January  11,  the  French  army  of  the  West  was 
completely  defeated  near  Le  Mans  by  the  German 
Second  Army,  under  Prince  Frederick  Charles  and 
the  Grand  Duke  of  Mecklenburg,  and  Le  Mans 
was  immediately  occupied."  Such  was  the  an- 
nouncement in  The  Times  newspaper  on  the 
morning  of  January  13,  1871. 

General  Chanzy,  who  was  in  command  of  the 
[  109  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

French  army  of  the  West,  courted  defeat  by 
advancing  upon  Paris,  and  by  his  retreat  upon  Le 
Mans  invited  the  Germans  to  occupy  it.  Prince 
Frederick  Charles,  leaving  Orleans  and  passing 
Beaugency  and  Vendome,  arrived  at  the  latter 
place  in  time  to  see  Chanzy  repulsed,  but  not  in 
time  to  cut  ofif  the  French  army,  which  was  now 
in  full  retreat  towards  Paris.  A  series  of  rear- 
guard engagements  followed  as  the  Prussians  drove 
the  French  before  them  towards  Le  Mans.  The 
storming  of  Change  was  the  last  of  the  many  battles 
around  Le  Mans.  It  lies  in  a  hollow  with  hills 
curving  round  it  on  two  sides,  the  north  and  west, 
and  on  these  hills  the  French  had  taken  up  their 
position.  They  had,  apparently,  no  desire  to  ad- 
vance and  clear  away  the  Germans  who  were 
attacking  them,  laboriously  marching  through  snow 
and  the  thick  woods  which  covered  the  position. 
The  attacking  force  ran  from  tree  to  tree  and  sought 
whatever  shelter  was  available,  making  frequent 
charges  whenever  an  occasion  offered  itself.  Not- 
withstanding their  pertinacity  they  failed  to  carry 
the  heights,  and  were  for  some  time  in  danger  of 
suffering  a  severe  repulse,  as  the  reserves  on  whom 
they  relied  had  not  yet  come  up,  but  were  pounding 
their  way  along  the  frozen  roads  from  La  Chartre 
to  Le  Mans.    The  troops  bivouacked  in  the  snow  on 

[  no] 


LE   MANS 

the  night  of  the  nth,  and  when  the  frosty  sun  rose 
on  the  morning  of  the  12th  the  French  outposts  had 
been  withdrawn  and  retired  upon  Le  Mans.  By  this 
time  the  Tenth  Corps  had  joined  the  attacking  force, 
and  after  heavy  jfighting  in  the  streets  and  squares 
the  town  was  won  in  the  evening,  and  on  the  follow- 
ing day  Prince  Frederick  Charles  established  there 
his  headquarters. 

General  Chanzy  in  his  defence  of  Le  Mans 
accomplished  all  that  courage  and  gallantry  in  his 
dire  situation  could  suggest;  he  disputed  the 
country  inch  by  inch  before  the  advancing  armies  of 
the  Duke  of  Mecklenburg  and  Von  der  Taun,  but 
he  was  unable  with  his  raw  levies,  with  recruits  un- 
drilled,  unshod  and  unofficered,  to  withstand  the 
furious  onslaught  of  the  enemy.  Such  is  the  short 
tribute  paid  to  the  French  general  by  The  Times 
correspondent  with  the  Prussian  Army. 

The  Cathedral  of  Saint-Julien  sits  astride  a  great 
rock  overlooking  the  Place  des  Jacobins — a  square 
wide  enough  for  once  to  allow  of  an  adequate  view 
of  the  great  church  on  its  eastern  side.  It  stands  so 
high  that  the  want  of  a  central  tower  is  felt  less  than 
would  be  the  case  at  a  lower  level.  The  only  tower 
of  any  pretensions  is  over  the  south  transept — 
originally  the  north  transept  possessed  one  also — 
but  even  this  is  rather  inefEcient.    It  is  advisable  to 

[  III  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

enter  the  Cathedral  by  the  west  door  rather  than 
by  the  south  porch,  so  as  to  prevent  the  uninterest- 
ing west  wall  of  the  nave  from  becoming  a  factor 
of  one's  first  impression.  From  this  point  it  is  the 
choir  that  first  arrests  our  attention;  we  pass  on 
through  the  lower,  simpler  nave  and  through  the 
great  soaring  chancel  arch  that  to  look  upon  makes 
us  giddy,  to  the  blaze  of  deep-coloured  glass  and  the 
magnificent  chevet  of  stilted  arches  placed  close  to- 
gether and  looking  from  their  great  height  much 
narrower  than  they  really  are.  The  same  idea  of 
height  and  light  prevails  in  the  transepts,  for  by  this 
time -the  French  architect  had  begun  to  gauge  the 
emotional  effect  of  tremendous  height,  and  to  dare 
greater  things  than  his  predecessors  had  ever 
dreamed;  while  the  same  insatiable  desire  for  light 
that  we  saw  in  the  choir  at  Amiens  has  possessed  the 
builder  of  Saint  Julien,  and  led  him  to  make  his 
transep'ts  nearly  all  window — especially  the  northern 
one,  which  has  a  triforium  lighted  by  beautiful 
fifteenth-century  glass — and  to  put  a  double  ambula- 
tory round  the  choir,  both  lighted  by  that  marvellous 
jewelled  glass. 

The  Romanesque  nave  was  restored  in  the 
twelfth  century,  but  this  restoration  was  apparently 
a  replacement  of  a  great  deal  of  old  work,  with  only 
slight  modifications  of  the  original  inspiration.    A 

[    112   ] 


LE   MANS 

large  door,  decorated  with  sculpture  and  bearing  a 
strong  analogy  to  the  Portail  Royal  of  Chartres,  was 
opened  in  the  middle  of  the  south  aisle.  Further 
changes  were  made  in  the  early  part  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  when  the  ancient  apses  were  destroyed,  and 
the  admirable  choir,  as  we  now  see  it,  was  built — 
"  a  masterpiece  of  effect " — ^with  its  encircling 
chapels  radiating  like  the  petals  of  a  flower.  The 
vaulting  approaches  in  construction  the  "  cupola  in- 
spiration ";  but  here,  as  at  Angers  and  Poitiers,  it  is 
an  example  of  only  the  last  traces  which  remain  to 
us  of  the  domical  design. 

Besides  the  Cathedral  there  are  two  churches 
worthy  of  note — Notre  Dame  de  la  Couture,  in  the 
eastern  quarter  of  the  town,  amongst  the  shops  and 
markets;  and  Notre  Dame  (sometimes  called  St. 
Julien)  du  Pre,  across  the  river  in  the  far  west.  The 
latter  church,  in  spite  of  having  been  a  good  deal 
restored,  is  extremely  interesting.  In  the  nave  hangs 
a  little  printed  history,  which  tells  us  that  the  church 
was  founded  by  the  first  bishop  of  Le  Mans,  Saint 
Julian,  sent  as  a  missionary  by  Saint  Peter,  In 
honour  of  his  great  master  Julian  built  a  basilica, 
which  was  enlarged  by  Saint  Innocent  in  the  sixth 
century  and  restored  about  1050.  In  the  fifteenth 
century  both  church  and  monastery  suffered  from 
fire;  two  centuries  later  the  pious  Benedictines  made 

[  113  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

some  alterations,  but  during  the  Revolution  the 
church  was  sacked  and  burnt,  and  the  crypt,  together 
with  the  tombs  of  Saint  Julian  and  Saint  Hadouin, 
entirely  destroyed.  The  task  of  restoration  was  left 
to  the  faithful  in  the  nineteenth  century.  In  spite  of 
the  modern  work,  however,  the  church  contains  a 
great  deal  that  is  very  interesting  and  undoubtedly 
ancient.  The  nave  pillars  especially,  with  their 
carved  capitals,  are  worth  individual  notice.  In 
those  of  the  north  aisle,  from  west  to  east,  we  find 
portrayed: 

No.  I.  Animals  caught  in  a  thicket,  turning  their 
heads  over  their  shoulders  to  free  themselves  from 
the  branches.  Notice  here  how  the  volute  at  the 
corner  has  suggested  to  the  sculptor  a  human  face. 

No.  2.     Leaves  and  curiously  twisted  arabesques. 

No.  3.     The  same  in  a  simpler  form. 

No.  4.    Volutes  and  grotesque  heads  at  the  angles. 

No.  5.  [South  aisle,  east  to  west]  gives  a  kind  of 
rope-work,  with  volutes  and  human-headed  dragons. 

No.  6.    Is  much  the  same  as  No.  3. 

No.  7.  Flat  applique  leaves,  volutes  and  ball- 
flowers;  and  in 

No.  8.  We  return  to  the  wild  animals.  Both 
aisles  are  arcaded  on  their  outer  walls ;  on  the  north 
we  find  arches  ornamented  with  ball-flowers,  on  the 
south  an  arcade  of  some  interest,  as  showing  the 

[  114] 


NOTRE  DAME  DE  LA  COUTURE,  LE  MANS 


LE   MANS 

immense  variety  of  design  in  its  capitals — dragons, 
fir-cones,  arabesques,  and,  strangest  of  all,  winged 
lions,  with  a  most  Assyrian  air.  Apart  from  the 
capitals,  the  architecture  of  the  church  is  quite 
simple,  and  whoever  rehandled  it  has  done  so 
much  in  keeping  with  the  old  work.  The  windows 
are  round-headed:  the  clerestory  consists  of  single 
lights,  and  the  triforium  is  a  blind  arcade. 

Notre  Dame  de  la  Couture — the  name  originally 
referred  to  the  Cultura  Dei — is  an  old  Benedictine 
foundation,  dating  from  the  sixth  century,  but 
destroyed  during  the  Revolution;  the  church, 
however,  remains,  with  most  of  the  old  work 
intact,  the  two  square  fourteenth-century  towers 
rising  in  quaint  contrast  to  the  modern  buildings 
around  them.  Between  the  towers  a  remarkable 
Last  Judgment  confronts  the  visitor  from  the  west 
doorway.  The  central  figure.  Justice,  weighs  a  sin- 
ner in  the  balance,  and  apparently  finds  him  want- 
ing, if  one  may  judge  by  the  angle  of  the  scales  and 
the  expectantly  gleeful  attitude  of  a  devil  amongst 
the  "  goats "  on  the  left  hand.  Of  the  interior,  the 
choir  is  the  oldest  part,  and  here  we  find  eleventh- 
century  work,  especially  in  the  crypt,  which  contains 
the  tomb  of  the  founder.  Saint  Bertrand,  and  shows 
the  rudely  carved  capitals  and  square-edged  arches 
of  an  age  before  architects  had  blossomed  out  into 

[  IIS  3 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

beauty  of  sculpture  and  design.  The  same  simplicity 
characterises  the  choir,  which  has  four  bays  and  a 
chevet  of  five-round  arches,  with  massive  piers,  and 
the  abacus  square  and  voluted  at  the  angles.  The 
vaulting  of  the  chevet  is  terminated  by  figures  of 
saints,  which  rest  upon  the  shafts  of  the  clerestory 
windows.  There  is  no  triforium,  its  position  being 
taken  throughout  the  church  by  corbel  tables  in  the 
form  of  human  and  animal  faces.  The  nave  consists 
of  a  single  wide  body  without  aisles,  and  set  in  the 
blank  wall  are  three  large  bays  of  relieving  arches, 
their  space  being  filled  in  with  curious  old  tapestry, 
in  which  appears  a  medley  of  Biblical  subjects, 
pastoral  and  hunting  scenes,  and  Chinese  pagodas. 

This  quiet  little  church  was  in  the  very  centre  of 
the  furious  street  fighting  which  followed  the  first 
rush  into  the  city  of  the  Prussian  troops,  and  fulfilled 
its  sacred  mission  of  giving  shelter  to  the  wounded 
and  comfort  to  the  dying  who  lay  stretched  in  the 
neighbouring  streets  of  the  town.  "We  entered," 
says  the  war  correspondent  of  The  Times,  "  the  pic- 
turesque old  church  of  Notre  Dame  de  la  Couture, 
interesting  from  its  quaint  mixed  architecture,  its  old 
choir  and  vaulted  walls,  and  were  told  by  the  meek- 
looking  priest  who  sadly  showed  us  over  it,  and  was 
busy  cleaning  it  as  we  entered,  that  no  fewer  than 
six  hundred  wounded  had  passed  the  night  in  it." 

[  ii6  ] 


ANGERS 

XF  Le  Mans  marks  the  first  stage  from  Nor- 
mandy upon  the  southward  road,  Angiers 
may  certainly  be  counted  as  another 
stepping-stone  to  the  lands  of  the  Loire 
— another  landmark  in  our  own  history — another 
city  upon  a  hill,  and  yet  differing  from  all  the  hill 
cities  before  it.  We  are  now  in  what  Freeman  calls 
"  before  all  things  the  land  and  the  city  of  counts," 
the  city  which  gave  to  history  the  name  of  Fulk  the 
Black,  warrior  and  pilgrim  and  enemy  of  Odo  of 
Chartres;  of  Geoffrey  the  Hammer,  who  strove  with 
the  Conqueror  at  Domfront  and  Alengon;  of  Rene 
the  minstrel  and  of  Margaret  his  daughter,  who 
carried  to  England  the  spirit  of  the  old  Angevin 
line,  and  fought  with  the  strength  of  two  for  the 
inheritance  of  her  husband,  meek,  scholarly  Henry 
of  Windsor,  for  whom  the  shield  of  faith  had  more 
significance  than  the  shield  of  the  warrior. 
The  house  of  Anjou  cannot  but  have  an  interest  to 
[  117] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

an  Englishman,  since  it  is  the  parent  stock  of  our 
longest  dynasty.  Long  before  it  came  through  Nor- 
mandy into  contact  with  England  it  held  its  own, 
however,  in  Gaul,  Roman  and  Frankish.  The  An- 
decavi,  who  settled  on  the  Maine,  were  an  important 
tribe,  and  their  city  was  of  equal  importance.  In  464 
the  Saxons  wandered  down  from  Normandy  and 
overran  Anjou,  but  their  occupation  was  merely 
temporary,  and  left  no  traces  in  city  or  people,  as  did 
the  Saxon  colonies  at  Bayeux  and  in  England;  and 
when  this  one  cloud  has  cleared  off,  an  open  field  is 
left  for  the  history  of  the  counts.  Now  the  Counts 
of  Anjou  may  be  said  to  stand  very  near  the  head  of 
the  list  of  all  the  rulers  in  France  at  this  early  time 
— a  long  list,  which  numbers  many  important  names, 
Hughs  and  Roberts  of  Paris,  Williams  and  Richards 
of  Normandy,  Thibauts  of  Champagne — yet 
against  whose  feats  of  arms  and  feats  of  policy  the 
Angevins  can  measure  theirs  almost  one  by  one. 
*^  The  restless  spirit  of  the  race  showed  itself  some- 
times for  good  and  sometimes  for  evil,  but  there  was 
no  Count  of  Anjou  who  could  be  called  a  fool,  a 
coward,  or  a  faineant^ 

The  first  count,  Ingelgar,  received  his  dominion 
from  Charles  the  Bald,  in  about  870.  After  him 
comes  Fulk  the  Red,  who  enlarged  his  father's  bor- 
ders beyond  the  river;  Fulk  the  Good,  the  scholar 

[  118  ] 


ANGERS 

who  defended  his  learning  with  the  well-known 
proverb,  "  An  unlettered  king  is  but  a  crowned  ass," 
a  saying  which  spread  beyond  his  own  realm  and 
found  favour  at  the  court  of  England ;  and  the  war- 
like Geoffrey  of  the  Grey  Tunic,  who  repelled  the 
Breton  and  Aquitanian  incursions  and  fought  in 
Prankish  and  German  wars  besides.  Geoffrey  it  was 
who  gave  to  the  line  the  famous  Fulk  the  Black,  the 
first  count  who  appears  to  any  great  extent  in  French 
history — the  history,  that  is,  of  France  proper,  at 
that  time  apart  from  the  great  duchies  on  her  boun- 
daries. His  wars  with  Odo  filled  a  great  part  of  his 
reign,  and  brought  him  down  as  far  as  the  Loire, 
where,  through  the  alliance  of  a  count  of  Perigueux, 
Tours  became  his  for  a  short  time;  also  Saumur, 
after  the  victory  of  Pontlevois.  On  two  occasions  he 
turned  pilgrim ;  and  he  is  also  found  at  Rome,  apply- 
ing to  the  Pope  for  consecration  of  his  new  monastery 
near  Loches,  which  Hugh  of  Tours,  whose  see  Fulk 
had  robbed,  refused  to  consecrate  unless  the  stolen 
lands  were  restored.  Naturally  the  Gallican  Church 
resented  this  destruction  of  their  privileges;  the  full 
wrath  of  the  episcopate  was  pronounced  against  the 
recreant  count,  and  a  legend  adds  that  in  further 
punishment  a  wind  came  from  heaven  and  blew 
down  his  newly-built  church.  How  this  uncanonical 
behaviour  must  have  vexed  the  shades  of  Fulk  the 

[  119] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

pious!  Fulk  Nerra  was  followed  by  Geoffrey,  self- 
christened  the  Hammer.  He  rebelled  against  his 
father  during  his  lifetime,  but  after  his  death  con- 
tinued the  war  with  Chartres,  and  actually  got  pos- 
session of  Tours,  the  one  city  for  which  every  Ange- 
vin strove.  Count  Thibaut  was  formally  deprived 
of  the  city  by  royal  command,  and  it  was  handed 
over  to  Geoffrey,  under  the  favour,  the  superstitious 
chroniclers  make  haste  to  add,  of  Saint  Martin. 
Notwithstanding  this  royal  grant,  Henry,  the  Frank 
king,  seems  to  have  been  perpetually  at  war  with 
Geoffrey,  and  even  to  have  called  in  feudal  service 
of  the  Norman  duke  to  aid  him  against  the  Angevin 
count.  William  himself  was  no  friend  to  Anjou. 
The  mastery  over  Maine  was  a  bone  of  contention  to 
the  two  great  powers  on  its  north  and  south  borders; 
and  when  Geoffrey  obtained  the  guardianship  of 
little  Count  Hugh,  and  came  into  immediate  contact 
with  Normandy,  a  definite  struggle  arose.  Geoffrey 
aimed  at  the  two  outposts  of  William's  territory, 
Alengon  and  Domfront.  Alengon,  through  the 
treachery  of  its  lord,  surrendered  to  him;  Domfront 
was  also  disaffected,  and  for  a  moment  it  seemed  as 
though  the  land  of  the  great  Norman  were  to  be 
invaded  by  his  southern  neighbour.  But  William 
was  prepared  for  any  emergency.  He  marched 
straight  to  Domfront,  where  Geoffrey  had  already 

[    I20  ] 


ANGERS 

stationed  his  troops,  and  laid  siege  to  it.  He  re- 
mained before  the  town  for  some  time  before  news 
came  of  the  advance  of  Geoffrey  himself;  and  when 
the  Count  at  last  arrived,  he  sent  word  of  his  readi- 
ness to  give  battle.  But  when  the  morning  broke 
upon  the  Norman  host,  drawn  up  before  the  fortress 
all  expectant  of  a  battle  with  the  Angevins,  lol  no 
enemy  was  to  be  seen.  Geoffrey,  whose  surname  of 
Hammer  by  no  means  maligned  his  prudence,  had 
thought  better  of  the  scheme  in  the  night,  and  retired 
with  all  his  men.  The  Norman  writers,  of  course, 
set  this  down  to  cowardice.  But  one  would  like  to 
hear  the  other  side  of  the  story.  "  Here,  and 
throughout  the  war,  the  lions  stand  in  need  of  a 
painter,  or  rather  their  painters  suddenly  refuse  to 
do  their  duty.  We  have  no  Angevin  account  of  the 
siege  of  Domf  ront  to  set  against  our  evidently  highly 
coloured  Norman  picture." 

"The  French  yearning  to  make  everything  new" 
has  done  its  work  in  Angers,  but  though  Fulk,  Geof- 
frey, Rene,  and  the  rest  would  be  at  a  loss  to  recog- 
nise their  old  capital  in  the  trim  modern  town, 
enough  remains  to  show  us  what  has  been.  No  city 
standing  as  Angers  does  on  rising  ground  above  a 
wide  river,  with  a  mass  of  castle  bastions  sloping  up 
the  hill,  could  fail  to  have  made  history  in  its  day. 
The  modern  town  may  be  disposed  of  in  a  few  words 

[  121  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

—it  is  clean  and  full  of  life,  and  altogether  very  far 
removed  from  the  "  black  Angers "  known  to  our 
ancestors.  This  mediaeval  and  grim-sounding  title, 
reminiscent  of  dungeons  and  tyrant  princes,  probably 
either  meant  that  the  ancient  town  was  closely  and 
squalidly  built,  or  else  referred  to  the  dark  slate  with 
which  the  country  abounds,  and  which  might  well 
have  been  used  for  building  purposes  all  over  the 
town,  as  we  still  see  it  in  some  houses  by  the  river. 

The  attractive  side  of  Angers  is  that  facing  the 
water,  and  the  river  is  quite  worthy  of  the  town  on 
its  banks,  though  Mr.  Henry  James  does  censure 
the  "  perversity  in  a  town  lying  near  a  great  river, 
and  yet  not  upon  it."  It  is  true  that  Angers  has  not 
got  as  far  as  the  Loire;  but  it  has  what  is  next  best,  a 
tributary  of  the  great  river — a  wide  placid  flow, 
which  makes  no  mean  show  here,  spanned  as  it  is  by 
three  fine  bridges.  Looking  upstream  from  the  low- 
est bridge  one  sees  the  old  and  the  new  together;  the 
clean  well-to-do  water-front,  pleasant  boulevards, 
and  a  bright  little  quay  with  every  house  the  pattern 
of  its  neighbour;  and  above  this  the  black  mass  of 
the  castle,  whose  solid  hugeness  makes  the  crowning 
towers  of  Saint  Maurice  look  as  if  they  were  cut  out 
of  paper,  so  delicately  and  sharply  defined  are  they 
against  the  sky.  Down  river  there  is  a  long  and 
sunny  path,  broad  green  meadows  and  a  stretch  of 

[    122   ] 


ANGERS 

country  beyond,  and  little  fishing  boats  dotted  about 
on  the  water. 

But  what  Angers  has  of  the  best  is  its  castle, 
though  it  be  "  the  work  of  intruding  Kings,"  Philip 
Augustus  and  Louis  IX.,  and  not  of  the  Angevin 
counts.  It  is,  indeed,  more  massive  than  picturesque 
— "  it  has  no  beauty,  no  grace,  no  detail,  nothing  that 
charms  or  detains  you;  it  is  simply  very  old  and  very 
big — so  big  and  so  old  that  this  simple  impression  is 
enough,  and  it  takes  its  place  in  your  recollections  as 
a  perfect  specimen  of  a  superannuated  stronghold." 
The  huge  grim  bastions,  girded  with  iron  bands  as 
though  to  give  added  strength  to  their  already  giant- 
like solidity,  and  the  deep  moat,  filled  in  old  days  by 
the  waters  of  the  Maine,  stood  there  for  a  very  real 
and  terrible  use,  and  even  now  are  a  splendid  ex- 
ample of  how  men  in  the  Middle  Ages  defended 
themselves  against  all  comers.  The  very  steepness 
and  plainness  of  the  vast  walls  prevented  an  enemy 
from  gaining  any  foothold,  even  supposing  him  to 
have  crossed  the  moat  in  safety.  But  this  great  house 
of  defence  now  gives  on  to  a  modern  boulevard;  a 
kitchen-garden  occupies  the  moat,  and  sends  the 
scent  of  thyme  and  rosemary  up  through  those  loop- 
hole windows,  whose  most  peaceful  prospect  of  old 
was  the  black,  silent  water  below,  and  whose  usual 
occupants  were  armed  men  with  cross-bows,  or  boil- 

[  123  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

ing  lead,  or  something  equally  quieting  to  the  un- 
wary spirit  attempting  to  scale  those  unscalable 
ramparts. 

In  the  heart  of  the  town  is  a  very  comfortable 
little  inn  at  the  sign  of  the  "  Cheval  Blanc."  The 
house  has  a  quiet  and  rather  old-fashioned  atmos- 
phere, perhaps  a  relic  of  past  days,  as  the  inn  itself 
has  stood  there  since  the  sixteenth  century,  though 
the  present  building  is  quite  modern.  Another  relic 
• — though  the  term  hardly  suits  such  a  hale  and  hearty 
person — is  a  delightful  old  waiter,  who  has  been  at 
the  Cheval  Blanc  for  forty  years,  and  wears  on  his 
coat  with  the  greatest  pride  a  minute  piece  of  tricolor 
— the  recognition  of  thirty  years'  service.  Close  to 
the  Cheval  Blanc  is  the  Prefecture,  and  this  contains 
a  hidden  treasure  in  the  shape  of  an  old  cloister, 
which  runs  along  one  side  of  the  court.  This  cloister 
was  not  discovered  until  1836,  but  the  remains  them- 
selves date  from  the  twelfth  century,  and  are  of  ex- 
traordinary interest,  not  merely  from  their  antiquity, 
but  also  from  the  immense  variety  of  subject  sculp- 
ture which  adorns  them.  There  are  several  bays  of 
round-headed  arches,  and  from  their  capitals  and 
mouldings  dragons  and  toads,  snakes  and  winged 
lions,  glare  and  wriggle  at  the  visitor  in  a  grotesque 
medley.  In  some  cases  Scriptural  subjects  are  repre- 
sented— there  is  notably  the  murder  of  the  Innocents, 

[  124  ] 


ANGERS 

a  marvellously  preserved  and  realistic  fresco,  remin- 
iscent both  in  treatment  and  colour  scheme  of  some 
of  the  Bayeux  tapestry;  the  killing  of  Goliath  by 
David,  and  the  presentation  of  his  head  to  Saul;  and 
inside  a  very  modern  council-room,  a  wonderful  alle- 
gory representing  the  defeat  of  Vice  by  Virtue.  The 
Lamb,  enhaloed,  is  in  the  centre;  beneath  are  two 
lions  tearing  apart  a  wild  boar;  and  in  the  jambs  are 
virtues,  armed  with  shield  and  sword,  trampling 
upon  demon  vices — men  struggling  with  wild  beasts 
— and  adoring  angels  swinging  censers.  This  is 
partly  coloured,  and  the  sculpture  is  very  fine,  great 
attention  being  given  to  detail. 

Freeman  declares  the  city  of  Angers  to  be  the 
headquarters  of  the  Angevin  style  of  architecture, 
and  quotes  as  a  noticeable  example  of  that  style  the 
Cathedral  of  St.  Maurice,  which  differs  at  least  as 
widely  from  that  of  the  French  churches  as  from  that 
of  Normandy.  The  object  of  the  Angevin  architect 
was  breadth,  and  he  has  sacrificed  both  length  and 
height  to  the  attainment  of  his  end.  The  view  from 
the  west  doorway  of  St.  Maurice  shows  a  well-known 
example  of  what  is  termed  the  "  hall  plan  " — a  single 
wide  nave,  having  choir  and  transepts,  but  without 
ambulatories  or  aisles.  That  the  church  originally 
had  aisles,  however,  is  evident  from  a  plan  of  Saint 
Maurice  given  in  Mr.  Lethaby's  "  Mediaeval  Art"; 

[  125  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

they  were  removed,  it  is  assumed,  in  order  to  sim- 
plify the  construction  of  the  vault.  The  great  reliev- 
ing arches  of  the  nave  as  it  now  stands  are  divided 
into  three  bays  only.  "  In  everything,"  Freeman  says, 
"  the  tendency  is  to  have  a  few  large  members  rather 
than  many  small  ones.  There  is  a  certain  boldness 
and  simplicity  about  this  kind  of  treatment;  but  there 
is  also  a  certain  bareness,  and  an  Angevin  church 
looks  both  lower  and  shorter  than  it  really  is."  The 
vaulting  of  the  roof  here  follows  the  same  sub-domi- 
cal design  as  that  of  Notre  Dame  de  la  Couture  at 
Le  Mans.  The  stained  glass  is  perhaps  the  best 
feature  of  the  church  as  far  as  actual  beauty  goes; 
some  of  it  dates  from  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  cen- 
turies, and  both  in  nave  and  choir  it  is  very  fine,  par- 
ticularly in  the  windows  of  the  apse  and  in  the  rose 
window  of  the  north  transept.  The  tapestry  which 
hangs  in  the  nave  and  transepts  represents  scenes 
from  the  Apocalypse,  and  is  very  fine  Arras  work  of 
the  fourteenth  century. 


[  126] 


TOURS   AND   BLOIS 

'O  much  has  been  said  and  written  of  the 
Loire  country  during  the  past  fifty  years 
that  the  modern  writer  has  very  little 
ground  left  to  him,  unless  it  be  to  avoid 
calling  it  the  "  Garden  of  France.''  Yet  over-written 
as  it  may  be,  Touraine  has  not  lost  any  of  the  charm 
and  romance  which  must  always  attach  to  a  wide 
sunny  land,  watered  by  a  great  river,  and  "  peopled  " 
— one  might  almost  say — by  chateaux,  every  one  of 
which  has  set  its  mark  upon  French  history.  Cer- 
tainly there  is  something  very  delightful,  because  so 
unlike  anything  else  in  France,  in  the  endless  vista 
of  grey-green  levels — here  and  there  a  group  of  slim 
shivering  poplars  or  a  flash  of  sunlight  upon  the 
wide  waters  of  the  Loire,  which  winds  in  and  out  of 
the  flats  like  a  great  lazy  shining  serpent — flying 
sometimes  into  a  sudden  rage  and  flooding  the  land, 
or  subsiding  sulkily  amongst  high  banks  and  stretches 
of  dry  sand. 

[  127  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES    OF   FRANCE 

It  is  these  moods  and  tempers  of  the  great  river 
that  prevent  any  navigation  upon  its  waters;  other 
smaller  rivers — the  Seine,  for  instance,  and  our  own 
Thames — are  alive  with  craft  of  every  kind ;  but  here, 
on  the  great  boundary  stream  between  north  and 
south,  which  seems  made  for  a  waterway  to  the  sea, 
no  busy  steamers  ply  up  and  down  with  the  tide — no 
barges  and  market  boats  disturb  the  calm  of  its  wide 
reaches.  There  never  was,  for  its  size,  such  an  erratic 
and  useless  river;  yet  we  can  afford  to  forgive  it,  for 
the  sake  of  the  land  which  it  waters  and  the  cities 
on  its  banks. 

The  impression  one  carries  away  from  Tours  is 
one  of  wideness,  and  brightness,  and  sunshine — 
shaded  by  one  or  two  ancient  corners.  It  is  above 
all  things  a  town  really  lived  in  and  appreciated  by 
its  inhabitants,  many  of  whom  are  English.  Tours 
is,  or  used  to  be,  a  famous  educational  centre,  and 
for  the  sake  of  education,  or  economy,  or  both,  whole 
families  have  migrated  there,  besides  the  unmistaka- 
bly English  students  who  have  been  grafted  on  to  a 
family  to  learn  French.  And  the  river-side  shows, 
if  not  a  strenuously  busy,  at  least  a  very  sociable  side 
of  the  town  life,  especially  in  the  summer  evenings, 
when  the  Tourangeaux,  native  and  adopted,  leave  the 
white  houses  and  busy  streets,  and  use  their  river 
bank  for  a  pleasant  walk. 

[  128  ] 


TOURS   AND   BLOIS 

It  is  curious  how  in  France  each  step  towards  the 
south  seems  to  be  a  step  further  in  French  history. 
First  there  is  Normandy,  the  land  of  the  early  North- 
ern warriors,  with  the  fierce  blood  untamed  in  their 
veins;  then  Maine  and  Anjou,  recalling  the  days  of 
our  own  Plantagenet  kings,  and  the  close  connection 
of  France  with  England ;  while  Touraine  brings  back 
to  us  the  craft  of  Louis  XI.  and  the  magnificence  of 
Frangois  I®^  Tours  itself,  however,  has  never  been 
content  to  lie  fallow  for  long;  ever  since  some  Ro- 
man emperor  transported  it  from  the  right  bank  of 
the  Loire  to  the  left,  and  made  it  the  capital  of  Lug- 
dunensis  Tertia,  the  town  has  had  an  important  part 
assigned  to  it,  and  has  played  out  that  part  to  the  full. 
Though  in  old  days  Tours  was  only  half  of  the  place, 
the  cite,  the  bourg,  built  round  the  tomb  and  shrine 
of  Saint  Martin  and  first  called  by  his  name,  was  of 
equal  if  not  greater  importance,  from  the  many  pil- 
grimages to  the  resting-place  of  the  great  saint.  This 
is  easily  understood  when  one  considers  in  what  ven- 
eration Saint  Martin  was  held  by  the  Gauls  and  their 
descendants.  Saint  Gatianus,  the  first  bishop  of 
Tours,  began  the  good  work  in  the  third  century,  but 
to  Martin  is  due  the  subsequent  spread  of  Chris- 
tianity, not  only  in  Touraine  but  all  over  France,  so 
that  he  really  shares  with  Saint  Denis  the  honour  of 
patron  saint.    Born  of  pagan  parents  in  Pannonia, 

[  129  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

Martin  became  a  catechumen  at  ten  years  old,  and 
five  years  later  was  forced,  much  against  his  will,  to 
enter  the  army.  After  his  final  conversion  and  bap- 
tism, however,  he  left  it  to  become  the  eager  disciple 
and  co-worker  of  Hilary,  Bishop  of  Poitiers;  and  in 
371  he  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Tours.  The 
legend  of  Martin's  conversion  is  well  known  (at  any 
rate  it  may  be  found  commemorated  in  the  painted 
windows  of  churches  all  over  France) — how  the 
young  soldier  stationed  outside  the  gate  of  Amiens 
shared  his  cloak  with  a  passing  beggar,  and  how  the 
following  night  Christ  appeared  to  him  in  a  vision, 
making  known  to  the  angels  of  Heaven  this  thing 
done  to  Himself  as  to  one  of  "  the  least  of  these." 

After  Martin's  death  at  Candes  his  relics  were 
brought  to  Tours,  and  in  the  fifth  century  Saint  Per- 
petuus built  a  splendid  basilica  round  the  shrine. 
This  church  became  the  nucleus  of  the  bourg  of  Mar- 
tinopolis,  known  to  the  Middle  Ages  as  Chateauneuf. 
Side  by  side  with  the  church  a  monastery  sprang  up, 
and  in  the  reign  of  Charlemagne  the  famous  scholar 
Alcuin  became  abbot  and  founded  there  his  school 
of  theology.  Late  in  the  tenth  century  the  basilica 
was  destroyed  by  fire;  two  centuries  later  saw  the 
completion  of  its  successor,  but  this  again,  after  suf- 
fering many  evils  from  Huguenot  and  Revolutionist 
hands,  disappeared  under  the  First  Empire  to  make 

[  130  ] 


J  ^>  >      ' 


>   '»».>>    > ' 


TOUR  DE  L'HORLOGE,  TOURS 


TOURS   AND   BLOIS 

a  passage-way  for  the  Rue  des  Halles.  Two  towers — 
the  church  originally  had  five — now  look  mournfully 
at  one  another  across  the  busy,  narrow  street:  the 
Tour  de  THorloge,  square  and  solid,  with  a  leaded 
roof  capped  by  a  small  eighteenth-century  dome,  and 
the  taller  Tour  Charlemagne,  so  called  for  the  rather 
insufficient  reason  that  Charlemagne  buried  his  third 
wife,  Luitgarde,  beneath  its  base.  These  are  the  sole 
relics  of  the  ancient  culte  of  Saint  Martin;  though 
to  his  memory  in  latter  days  a  new  basilica  has  reared 
itself  on  the  other  side  of  the  street. 

Until  the  days  of  the  League,  the  kings  of  France 
always  found  an  attraction  in  the  sunny  Touraine 
meadows,  and  occupied  themselves  a  good  deal  with 
Tours  itself.  On  the  outskirts  of  the  town  is  the  vil- 
lage of  Plessis-les-Tours,  where  stood  the  famous 
fortress  of  Louis  XL,  who  lived,  plotted  and  died 
within  its  walls;  here  also  Louis  XIL  was  pro- 
claimed "  father  of  his  people,"  and  here  Henri  III. 
and  the  King  of  Navarre  met  together  for  a  common 
defence  against  the  League.  To  an  Englishman  the 
name  naturally  associates  itself  with  Quentin  Dur- 
ward,  and  calls  up  a  picture  of  the  grim  fortress  so 
vividly  described  by  Walter  Scott,  with  its  triple 
moat  and  high  palisades,  its  dark  walls  and  turreted 
gateways,  defended  by  three  hundred  Scottish 
arches,  and  the  donjon  tower  "which  rose  like  a 

[  131  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

black  Ethiopian  giant,  high  into  the  air."  The  castle 
of  Plessis  was  in  old  days  a  terror  to  the  country- 
side; the  surrounding  forest  was  a  perfect  network 
of  man-traps,  and  the  intruder,  were  he  fortunate 
enough  to  avoid  these,  had  no  chance  of  escape  from 
the  arrows  of  the  Scottish  guard  in  their  iron  "  swal- 
lows' nests  "  upon  the  walls.  Hardly  less  mysterious, 
indeed,  is  the  central  figure  within  these  grim  sur- 
roundings— Louis  himself,  whose  character,  with  its 
strange  mingling  of  guile  and  religious  fervour,  un- 
fathomable craft  and  childish  superstition,  baffled 
the  men  of  his  own  day  as  it  has  baffled  posterity.  He 
was  feared  by  those  who  served  him,  and  he  was 
obeyed,  because  a  terrible  alternative  awaited  the 
disobedient;  but  he  was  neither  loved  nor  understood. 
Of  love,  indeed,  he  had  little  need,  and  it  was  not  his 
pleasure  that  men  should  understand  him. 

Very  little,  however,  remains  to-day  of  the  "  verger 
du  roi  Louis "  to  show  that  it  was  once  the  home  of 
kings.     It  has  gone  the  way  of  most  of  the  "  illusions 

...  in  the  good  city  of  Tours  with  regard  to 
Louis  XL,"  and  only  a  few  fragments  and  '^  incon- 
sequent lumps "  share  with  some  modern  buildings 
the  site  of  this  royal  prison  of  Plessis-les-Tours. 

The  western  fagade  of  Tours  Cathedral,  with  its 
two  small  towers,  is  a  noticeable  example  of  the 
waning  Gothic  style.    The  detail  is  so  "  charmingly 

[  132  ] 


ST.  GATIEU,  TOURS 


TOURS   AND   BLOIS 

executed  as  almost  to  induce  the  belief,  in  spite  of 
the  fanciful  extravagance  which  it  displays,  that  the 
architects  were  approaching  to  something  new  and 
beautiful  when  the  mania  for  classic  detail  overtook 
them."  Looking  eastward  from  the  west  door  one 
notices  the  northerly  trend  of  the  Cathedral's  axis, 
commencing  from  the  transept  arches.  The  choir 
spreads  outward  at  its  first  bay,  the  side  walls  not 
following  the  alignment  of  the  body  of  the  church. 
The  glass  is  both  abundant  and  magnificent  in  the 
nave  lights,  and  the  enormous  clerestory  windows 
display  it  to  the  greatest  possible  advantage.  Un- 
fortunately, the  fine  rose  window  in  the  north  tran- 
sept is  marred  by  the  cutting  across  of  a  vertical 
pillar,  inserted  as  a  support  to  the  crest  of  the  arch. 
In  both  transepts  the  triforium  arches  present  a  curi- 
ous and  novel  arrangement,  the  reason  for  which  is 
not  very  apparent.  The  arches  are  in  a  double 
plane,  but  the  openings  are  not  directly  one  behind 
another. 

The  pier  arches  of  the  nave  are  plain,  with 
simple  panel-like  spandrils,  the  piers  themselves 
supporting  a  very  large  clerestory  and  glazed  tri- 
forium. In  the  latter  the  heads  of  the  arches  are 
filled  in  with  rich  Flamboyant  tracery,  either  in 
imitation  of  the  fleur-de-lys,  or  with  varieties  of 
wheel  tracery  in  double  plane.    The  choir  is  mucH 

[  133] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

earlier  than  the  nave,  and  its  bays  show  a  beautiful 
proportion  and  harmony  in  its  members,  the  whole 
elevation  being  supported  on  clustered  columns 
with  stalk  capitals  and  square  abacus.  In  the  apse 
the  tracery  is  a  slight  variant  from  that  of  the 
choir;  the  arch-heads  are  here  filled  in  with  trefoil 
instead  of  quatrefoil  tracery.  On  the  north  side  of 
the  Cathedral  are  the  remains  of  some  cloisters, 
joined  to  the  main  body  by  two  flying  buttresses. 

To  most  travellers  in  France  the  town  of  Blois  is 
associated  with  a  chateau  rather  than  with  a  cathe- 
dral; it  is  one  of  a  group  of  towns  known  and  visited 
for  the  historic  piles  which  tower  above  their  grey 
roofs — Amboise  and  Chambord,  Langeais  and 
Chenonceaux,  Chaumont  and  Montrichard.  We 
count  Blois  with  these  rather  than  with  the  towns 
famous  for  their  churches,  and  the  bishopstool 
comes  rather  as  a  surprise,  or  as  a  thing  uncon- 
sidered. The  Cathedral,  built  in  the  seventeenth 
century  and  dedicated  to  St.  Louis,  occupies  a 
magnificent  position,  overhanging  the  grey  water- 
front of  the  Loire  in  a  fashion  which  seems  to  call 
for  some  nobler  building.  However,  although 
built  according  to  a  curiously  mixed  design  in 
bastard  Gothic  and  Renaissance,  there  is  a  certain 
sense  of  proportion  in  the  interior  of  the  church, 
the  vaulting  being  especially  simple  and  broad  in 


TOURS   AND   BLOIS 

effect.  The  nave  consists  of  nine  bays,  with  a 
low  clerestory,  terminating  in  stone  panels,  which 
occupy  the  place  usually  assigned  to  the  triforium, 
and  are  left  in  the  rough  with  a  view  to  subsequent 
enrichment  by  sculpture.  The  examples  of  adorn- 
ment at  the  east  end,  however,  make  one  feel  that 
the  church  has  been  mercifully  spared  any  fur- 
ther fantasies  from  the  chisel  of  the  Renaissance 
sculptor. 

Far  better  is  the  Church  of  St.  Nicolas,  whose 
twin  towers  stand  out  dark  and  sharp  midway 
between  the  water-front  and  the  overhanging  mass 
of  the  Chateau.  It  belongs  to  the  tenth  and 
eleventh  centuries,  and  has  not  been  much  restored 
except  by  whitewash,  which  covers  most  of  the 
interior,  but  allows  a  good  deal  of  old  work  to  be 
seen,  especially  in  the  north  aisle,  where,  near  the 
pulpit,  we  find  round-headed  windows  very  deeply 
splayed.  The  nave  has  five  bays,  and  a  blind 
triforium,  consisting  of  an  arcade  of  four  small 
arches  in  each  bay,  the  last  two  eastward  having 
only  three  arches  set  in  the  blind  wall.  These  last 
bays  are  much  ruder  than  the  others,  especially  on 
the  south  side.  The  clerestory  has  twin  lights, 
with  a  rose  in  the  head  of  the  arch,  as  is  seen  in 
the  Cathedral  at  Chartres.  The  transepts  are 
good,    and    the    little    corbel-tables    running    the 

[  I3S  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

whole  way  round,  form  a  series  Of  those  grotesque 
and  curiously  unecclesiastical  faces  of  men  and 
beasts  which  we  find  so  often  in  early  church 
sculpture.  In  this  particular  series  a  gridiron 
plays  a  prominent  part,  which  is  curious,  as  the 
church  appears  to  have  no  connection  with  Saint 
Lawrence.  Behind  the  choir  is  an  old  chapel 
dedicated  to  Saint  Joseph,  which  has  a  Romanesque 
apse;  and  it  is  noticeable  that  in  this  part  of  the 
church  the  roof  groining  is  simple — that  is,  with- 
out ribs.  In  the  lantern,  which  is  in  the  form  of 
a  cupola,  each  pendentive  is  terminated  by  the 
figure  of  a  saint  in  its  niche. 

High  above  Saint  Nicolas  a  steep  flight  of  steps 
leads  up  to  the  great  Chateau  which  has  made  history 
for  the  town  below.  The  most  striking  view  is 
from  the  other  side,  where  the  magnificent  "  aile 
Frangois  P'  '^  rises  in  imposing  fashion  above  the 
high  road;  but  the  entrance  is  in  the  Louis  XII.  wing 
to  the  east,  and  here  the  beautiful  inner  court  opens 
out  a  varied  display  of  richness.  The  eastern  wing 
itself  contains  the  private  apartments  of  Louis  XII. 
and  his  wife,  Anne  de  Bretagne — these  are  now  con- 
verted into  a  local  museum  and  picture  gallery — and 
the  lower  storey  is  in  the  form  of  an  arcade,  with 
unrestored  capitals  of  the  fifteenth  century.  Facing 
this  is  the  wing  of  "  ruled  lines  and  blank  spaces," 

[  136  ] 


c  '    C  <     C  '    ,     f  •    '    *■ ,  »■  c    f     f  c  ?   c    '  *f    '^      f 


■>^ 


TOURS   AND    BLOIS 

constructed  by  Gaston  d'Orleans,  brother  of  Louis 
XIII.,  upon  the  foundations  of  a  wing  erected  by  his 
ancestor,  the  poet-duke  Charles,  whom  Henry  V. 
took  prisoner  at  Agincourt,  and  whose  son  became 
Louis  XII.  The  old  castle  of  the  Counts  of  Blois 
had  been  sold  to  the  Orleans  family  by  the  last  of  the 
line  in  1397,  and  the  new  possessors,  each  in  his  day, 
occupied  themselves  in  restoring  and  embellishing  it. 
So  zealous  indeed,  in  this  respect,  was  Duke  Gaston, 
that,  had  not  fate  intervened,  not  only  the  west  wing 
but  the  entire  building  would  have  been  pulled  down 
to  make  way  for  his  plans.  Happily  for  posterity, 
this  devastation  never  took  place,  and  the  Frangois 
I^'  wing,  the  chief  treasure  of  the  Chateau,  is  still 
preserved  to  us  much  as  it  was  at  the  end  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  at  which  time  Blois  may  be  said 
to  have  reached  the  zenith  of  its  fame  in  the  history 
of  France.  The  Chateau  was  then  a  royal  residence, 
and  the  roll  of  its  inhabitants  forms  a  long  list  of 
illustrious  names,  foremost  among  which  stand 
those  of  Catherine  de  Medici  and  Charles  IX., 
Henri  III.,  and  the  King  of  Navarre,  and  the 
famous  Henri  de  Guise,  who  met  his  death  here 
through  the  suspicion  and  jealousy  of  the  king,  his 
cousin.  In  the  Guise  tragedy  the  chief  interest  of 
the  Chateau  appears  to  centre.  Dark  hints  concern- 
ing "  le  Balaf re  "  are  thrown  out  during  the  progress 

[  137] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES    OF    FRANCE 

through  a  succession  of  dim,  empty  rooms — council 
room  and  bed-chamber,  oratory  and  private  closet, 
some  flooded  with  sunshine,  others  dark  with  the 
strange  misty  curtain  that  age  will  sometimes  hang 
across  an  old  chamber,  and  through  whose  thin 
veil  one  seems  to  see  the  shades  of  those  old-time 
kings  and  queens,  walking,  plotting  and  praying  as 
they  did  when  the  Chateau  was  alive  with  the  tread 
of  men.  All  this  appears  to  lead  up  to  the  scene 
of  the  Guise  murder,  and  as  the  guide  reaches  the 
royal  bed-chamber  and  points  through  a  doorway 
here  and  down  a  passage  there,  one  seems  to  have 
reached  the  heart  of  the  tragedy.  There,  in  the  long 
council-room,  the  Balafre  stood,  warming  his  hands 
by  the  fire,  when  the  message  came  that  the  king 
awaited  him  in  a  cabinet  at  the  far  end  of  the  wing; 
here,  in  an  ante-room  close  by,  Henri  III.  lifted  the 
curtain  and  watched  the  enemy  to  his  death;  there  in 
the  dark,  narrow  passage — too  narrow  even  to  allow 
of  his  drawing  sword — Guise  found  himself  caught 
like  a  rat  in  a  trap;  here,  in  the  king's  own  chamber, 
he  doubled  back  for  safety,  and  met  his  death  at  the 
foot  of  the  royal  bed.  It  is  all  very  thrilling  and 
very  real;  and  little  as  there  is  to  love  in  Henri  de 
Guise,  one  cannot  but  pity  the  man  for  the  manner 
of  his  death ;  and  there  seems  nothing  but  justice  in 
the  murder  of  the  king  himself  a  short  time  after- 

[  138] 


TOURS   AND    BLOIS 

wards.  This  second  tragedy  took  place  outside  the 
old  dungeon,  a  gloomy  round  tower  with  cross-barred 
windows  and  a  heavy  iron  door,  behind  which  the 
Cardinal  de  Guise,  brother  of  the  Balafre,  suffered 
imprisonment  at  the  hands  of  his  jealous  cousin.  In 
the  centre  of  the  dungeon  floor  is  a  trap  door,  which, 
considering  the  general  atmosphere  of  the  place,  one 
naturally  associates  with  an  oubliette,  but  which  more 
probably  represented  the  head  of  a  well,  run  up 
through  the  building  in  order  that  the  inhabitants 
of  the  castle  should  not  suffer  from  want  of  water 
in  siege  time. 

It  is  curious  to  note  that  the  historical  description 
to  which  the  visitor  listens  to-day  as  he  follows  his 
guide  through  those  empty  chambers  at  Blois  is 
almost  exactly  the  same  as  that  given  a  hundred  and 
twenty  years  ago.  Arthur  Young,  travelling  in 
France  in  1787,  paid  a  visit  to  Blois,  and  gives  the 
following  account  of  the  Chateau  and  its  history: 
"We  viewed  the  castle  for  the  historical  monument 
it  affords  that  has  rendered  it  so  famous.  They  show 
the  room  where  the  council  assembled,  and  the  chim- 
ney in  it  before  which  the  Duke  of  Guise  was 
standing  when  the  king's  page  came  to  demand  his 
presence  in  the  royal  closet;  the  door  he  was  entering 
when  stabbed;  the  tapestry  he  was  in  the  act  of  turn- 
ing aside;  the  tower  where  his  brother  the  cardinal 

[  139  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

suffered,  with  a  hole  in  the  floor  into  the  dungeon 
of  Louis  XL,  of  which  the  guide  tells  many 
horrible  stories,  in  the  same  tone,  from  having 
told  them  so  often,  in  which  the  fellow  in  West- 
minster Abbey  gives  his  monotonous  history  of  the 
tombs." 


[  140  ] 


G 


CHARTRES 

<<^y^"^HARTRES;'  says  Mr.  Henry  James, 
"  gives  us  an  impression  of  extreme 
antiquity,  but  it  is  an  antiquity  that  has 
gone  down  in  the  world."  It  may  be 
this  very  decadence  that  has  kept  Chartres  within 
itself  and  prevented  it  from  growing  out  into  a  large 
pretentious  city.  Many  other  places  which  rival  it 
in  age  and  association  have  either  swept  away  all 
traces  of  their  antiquity,  or  else  preserved  it  in  dig- 
nified contrast  to  the  modern  mushroom  town. 
Chartres  has  done  neither.  It  is  scarcely  more  at 
the  present  day  than  a  quaint  country  town  with  a 
very  old-fashioned  air,  a  place  of  steep,  twisting 
streets  and  quiet  little  market-squares,  the  cathedral 
rising  like  a  giant  from  the  very  midst  of  the  houses. 
Round  the  town  runs  a  boulevard,  known  as  the 
Tour-de-Ville,  and  interesting  for  the  fact  that  it 
follows  the  line  of  the  mediaeval  defences — ramparts 
that  kept  many  enemies  at  bay  when  Chartres  was  a 

[  HI  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

power  in  the  kingdom  of  France.  Here  and  there 
parts  of  these  defences  are  still  standing  and  one 
fragment  in  particular  forms  the  foundations  of  an 
old  convent.  Another  remnant  of  the  old  fighting 
days  is  the  Porte  Guillaume,  one  of  the  city  gates, 
built  when  the  march  of  the  English  forced  every 
French  town  to  keep  itself  under  bolt  and  bar.  Two 
round  towers,  embattled  and  machicolated,  flank  a 
low  archway,  and  to  complete  the  mediaeval  effect, 
the  ancient  fosse  still  remains  before  the  gate,  not 
grass-grown  or  choked  with  rubbish,  but  filled  with 
a  clear  stream,  just  as  it  might  have  been  in  old  days. 
Autricum  of  the  Carnutes  held  an  important 
position  in  Gaul,  ranking  very  near  the  great 
capital  of  the  Senones.  In  pre-Christian  times  it 
was  a  famous  Druidic  centre;  but  with  the 
advance  of  Christianity,  Savinian  and  Potentian,  the 
patron  saints  of  Sens,  extended  their  mission  to 
Chartres,  converted  the  inhabitants,  and  built  their 
first  church,  according  to  tradition,  upon  a  Druid 
grotto.  Later  on,  the  town  passed  into  the 
possession  of  a  line  of  counts,  who  were  a  very 
powerful  factor  in  mediaeval  France.  The  first 
Theobald  or  Thibaut  is  said  to  have  purchased  his 
domain  from  the  sea-king  Hasting,  who  had 
penetrated  beyond  the  coast  and  colonised  the 
lands  around  the  river  Eure.    His  son  and  successor, 

[  142  ] 


CHARTRES 

Thibaut  le  Tricheur,  lived  in  a  state  of  constant 
war  with  Normandy,  and  seems  to  have  been 
regarded  as  a  kind  of  evil  influence  by  the  old 
Norman  chroniclers,  whose  hero  in  Thibaut's  day 
was  naturally  their  own  Richard  the  Fearless. 
Another  of  the  line  was  the  famous  Odo,  whose 
ambition  went  beyond  his  own  states  of  Chartres  and 
Blois,  and  aimed  at  kingship  in  Burgundy  and  even 
in  Italy.  Through  the  greater  part  of  his  reign  he 
carried  on  also  the  struggle  with  Normandy  which 
had  raged  so  fiercely  in  Thibaut's  time,  besides  the 
standing  war  with  the  Angevin  line,  represented  by 
Fulk  the  Black.  It  was,  as  Freeman  says,  the  fact 
of  this  common  enemy  in  the  house  of  Chartres  which 
first  brought  Anjou  and  Normandy  into  direct  con- 
tact and  perhaps  laid  the  foundations  of  Anjou'^ 
subsequent  connection  with  England.  Chartres,  like 
Nevers,  was  made  a  duchy  under  Frangois  P"";  later 
it  passed  into  the  Orleans  family,  whose  nominal 
appanage  it  has  remained  ever  since,  the  eldest  son 
bearing  to  this  day  the  title  of  *^  Due  de  Chartres." 
It  is  also  interesting  to  notice  that  Henri  de 
Navarre  broke  the  long  succession  of  coronations  at 
Rheims  by  being  crowned  King  of  France  in 
Chartres  Cathedral,  three  years  after  the  town  had 
opened  its  gates  to  his  army  in  1591.  Some  three 
hundred  years  later  another  enemy  appeared  outside 

[  143  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

the  walls,  and  once  again  Chartres  found  itself  in 
the  hands  of  a  foreign  power.  Mr.  Cecil  Headlam, 
in  his  very  interesting  "  Story  of  Chartres,"  gives  a 
description  of  the  Prussian  occupation,  part  of  which 
may  be  quoted  here  as  showing  the  foresight  of  the 
Mayor,  who  in  this  terrible  time,  when  the  whole 
French  nation  seemed  utterly  demoralised,  thought 
rather  of  the  safeguard  of  the  city  and  its  one  great 
monument,  than  of  the  doubtful  and  dearly-won 
glory  of  a  protracted  defence. 

"  It  was  on  Friday,  September  30,  1870,  that  the 
Prussian  soldiers  appeared  for  the  first  time  near 
Chartres.  Three  weeks  later  Chateaudun  fell,  after 
a  desperate  and  heroic  defence,  for  which  that 
picturesque  and  ancient  town  paid  the  dear  price  of 
failure.  Two  days  later  the  enemy  marched  in  force 
upon  Chartres.  The  tirailleurs  and  mobiles  and 
troops  of  the  National  Guard,  who  endeavoured  to 
defend  the  town,  after  vain  marching  and  counter- 
marching, with  the  same  generous  ardour  and  utter 
ineffectiveness  as  had  distinguished  the  movements 
of  the  other  armies  before  the  disasters  of  Wissem- 
bourg.  Worth  and  Sedan,  returned  exhausted. 
Without  firing  a  shot  they  had  been  rendered  in- 
capable of  fighting.  Fighting  in  any  case  would 
have  been  useless.  It  was  wisely  decided  to  capitu- 
late, and  on  the  21st  the  Mayor  and  Prefect  of  the 

[  144  ] 


CHARTRES 

Department  drove  out  to  Morancez  to  save  the  city 
and  Cathedral,  by  surrendering  them  to  General  von 
Wittich,  from  the  inevitable  destruction  of  which 
Chateaudun  had  given  them  a  terrible  example. 
What  they  saw  on  their  way  of  the  French  defence 
and  the  Prussian  advance  convinced  civilians  and 
military  men  alike  that  it  was  impossible  to  hope  to 
defend  Chartres."  _  . 

At  the  head  of  the  Rue  St.  Jean,  where  it  leads  \ 
into  the  Place  du  Chatelet,  one  obtains  the  first  and 
best  view  of  the  two  beautiful  spires  at  the  west  end 
of  the  Cathedral.  The  southern  tower,  dating  back 
to  the  twelfth  century  and  conceived  in  a  style  which 
harmonises  with  the  broad  and  massive  design  of  the 
whole  building,  is  an  example  of  what  was  contem- 
plated as  a  finish  to  the  other  towers  of  the  Cathedral. 
The  northern  tower,  built  in  1507  by  Jean  le  Texier, 
well  deserves  its  reputation  as  the  most  beautiful 
Gothic  spire  ever  designed.  "  The  one,  fashioned 
by  the  Byzantine  chisel,  sprang  into  complete  being 
in  the  heroic  ages  of  faith  in  the  days  of  war  .  .  . 
the  other  rose,  after  a  long  peace,  under  the  hands  of 
the  still  Christian  architects  of  the  Renaissance,  when 
all  dangers  and  difficulties  had  been  surmounted." 

On  contemplating  the  plan  on  which  Chartres 
Cathedral  was  built  one  is  struck  with  the  enormous 
space  which  has  been  allotted  to  the  choir.    Here 

[  145  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

the  new  religious  cult  finds  its  earliest  expression, 
greater  provisions  are  made  for  its  ceremonials, 
larger  spaces  are  given  both  in  choir  and  transepts 
for  its  gorgeous  ritual  than  v^e  find  in  Paris, 
Soissons  or  Laon.  Bishops,  priests,  deacons,  choris- 
ters and  serving-men  needed  a  voider  platform  for 
the  ministration  of  the  sacred  rites  of  the  Church, 
and  especially  to  this  end  v^as  the  Cathedral  planned 
out.  It  is  said  that  its  construction  was  carried  out 
with  incredible  rapidity  in  the  desire  to  meet  the 
pressing  requirements  of  the  people,  who  demanded 
that  the  Cathedral  should  be  not  only  the  house  of 
prayer  for  the  bishop  and  his  canons,  but  essentially 
the  mother  church  of  the  humblest  of  her 
worshippers. 

The  prevalence  of  a  style,  more  or  less  uniform, 
with  its  main  attributes  harmonious  and  congruous, 
is  the  resultant  of  these  forces  working  together. 
The  completion  of  the  Cathedral  was  carried  out 
about  1240,  and  in  1250  were  added  the  two 
porches  at  the  entrance  to  the  transepts.  The 
sacristy  was  built  in  the  thirteenth  century,  and  a 
century  later  the  little  chapel  of  Saint  Piat  was 
attached  to  the  eastern  apse.  The  shortness  of  the 
nave  is  attributed  to  the  desire  to  utilise  the  founda- 
tions of  the  old  crypt  for  the  choir  and  not  to 
extend  the  building  farther  westward  than  the  two 

[  146  ] 


CHARTRES 

existing  towers.  Between  these  two  points,  the  walls 
of  the  crypt  and  the  western  towers,  the  nave  had  to 
be  constructed  and  without  any  possibility  of  further 
extension. 

No  less  than  nine  spires  were  originally  designed 
and  their  towers  actually  commenced.  What  a 
magnificent  effect  would  have  been  produced  had 
they  been  completed!  Standing  on  the  high 
ground  of  the  city, .  Chartres  with  its  clustering  pin- 
nacles would  have  been  one  of  the  wonders  jof 
Christendom.  The  magnificent  glass  of  the  thir- 
teenth century  is  so  deep  in  tone  that  upon  entering 
the  building  one  is  conscious  of  a  darkness  that  can  ' 
almost  be  felt,  so  much  at  variance  with  the  eflfect 
of  the  interior  of  most  large  French  Cathedrals. 

The  two  porches  placed  outside  the  transept 
doors  are  the  subject  of  a  panegyric  from  the  pen 
of  Viollet-le-Duc.  He  considers  them  as  the  most 
beautiful  and  harmonious  additions  ever  made  to 
an  existing  building,  and  their  architects  proved 
themselves  to  be  artists  of  the  very  first  rank.  No 
more  beautiful  specimen  of  a  portal  of  the  thir- 
teenth century  can  elsewhere  be  found  to  exist  ;^ 
glorious  and  rejoicing  in  colour  and  in  gold,  and  of  ' 
surpassing  sculpture  and  full  of  impressive  and 
solemn  statuary. 

Near  Chartres  there  are  two  small  towns  which 
[  147  1 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

might  well  be  taken  in  a  day's  excursion;  both  are 
connected  with  Chartres  historically  and  both  have 
a  certain  interest  of  their  own  certainly  not  devoid 
of  attraction  to  one  in  search  of  antiquities.  One  is 
Chateaudun,  whose  fall  during  the  war  of  1870  was, 
as  has  been  quoted  above,  the  signal  for  the  surrender 
of  Chartres;  the  other  is  Vendome,  the  township  of 
the  ancient  feudal  county.  From  Chartres  it  is 
Chateaudun  that  lies  first  in  our  road.  It  is  a 
straight,  neat  little  town — most  of  the  streets  cut  one 
another  at  right  angles — and  the  smoke  of  the 
Franco-Prussian  war  still  seems  to  hover  about  the 
place ;  one  of  its  chief  memories,  indeed,  is  the  great 
fight  in  October,  1870,  when  a  bare  thousand  franc- 
tireurs  of  the  national  guard  kept  the  town  for  half 
a  day  against  a  Prussian  army  of  ten  times  their 
strength,  and  the  quiet  market-square — now  called 
the  Place  du  18  Octobre — ^was  transformed  into  a 
battle-field.  All  the  heroism  that  the  day  called 
forth,  however,  could  not  save  the  town  from  being 
sacked  and  burnt — the  last  of  a  long  series  of  con- 
flagrations, lasting  from  the  sixth  to  the  nineteenth 
century,  that  has  won  for  the  little  town  its  cheerful, 
hopeful  motto :  "  Extincta  revivisco."  Certainly 
Chateaudun  has  risen  from  the  flames  with  a  fresh 
lease  of  its  quiet  life,  but  it  has  been  completely  mod- 
ernised, and  except  for  a  few  narrow  alleys  sloping 

[  148  ] 


RUE  DK  LA   PORTE  GUILLAUME,  CHARlRh^j 


CHARTRES 

down  towards  the  river,  which  would  seem  to  have 
escaped  the  general  devastation,  there  is  little  that 
does  not  belong  to  to-day.  This  is,  however,  making 
an  exception  of  the  Chateau  overlooking  the  Loire; 
a  great  exception,  since  at  present  all  that  there  is  to 
see  in  Chateaudun  consists  in  this  square  pile  on  the 
brow  of  the  hill ;  the  rest,  whatever  it  may  once  have 
been,  is  only  a  memory;  and  even  the  Chateau  itself 
hardly  seems  a  part  of  the  town,  since  it  is  not  until 
we  have  left  the  little  white-painted  streets  behind 
that  we  realise  its  existence,  and  then  it  comes  as  a 
gigantic  surprise;  a  huge,  square,  turreted  mass,  on 
its  platform  of  rock,  looking  away  over  the  rolling 
meadow  lands,  untroubled  through  all  the  years  of 
siege  and  conflagration.  Thibaut  le  Tricheur,  Count 
of  Champagne,  built  it  in  the  tenth  century;  it  was 
rebuilt  in  the  twelfth  century,  and  again  by  its 
seigneur,  the  famous  "  Bastard  of  Orleans,"  one  of 
the  most  devoted  followers  of  Joan  the  Maid.^ 
Finally,  under  Louis  XIL,  Frangois  d'Orleans- 
Longueville  applied  himself  to  fresh  renovations, 
and  built  the  splendid  fagade  overhanging  the 
Loire. 

Considering  that  the  Due  de  Vendome  has 
always  been  a  title  of  some  importance  in  France 
since  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and 
the   Comtes   de  Vendome  a   power  in  the   feudal 

[  149  3 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

world  before  that,  one  might  feel  rather  surprised 
not  to  find  the  town  itself  presenting  a  more 
imposing  aspect.  Vendome  is  a  picturesque  place, 
but  it  is  more  of  a  long  straggling  village  than  any- 
thing else,  and  it  is  only  the  ivied  ruins  on  the  cliff 
that  take  one  back — ^with  a  stretch  of  imagination,  it 
must  be  confessed — to  the  days  of  feudalism.  Ven- 
dome was  originally,  it  is  thought,  a  Gallic  township 
under  the  name  of  Vindocinum;  it  was  then  fortified 
by  the  Romans,  evangelised  by  Saint  Bienheure,  and 
finally  became  the  seat  of  a  feudal  count  about  the 
end  of  the  tenth  century.  In  1030  was  founded  the 
abbey  of  La  Trinite,  whose  church  is  one  of  the  first 
"  monuments  "  of  Vendome.  It  dates  from  the  thir- 
teenth and  fifteenth  centuries;  the  beautiful  Transi- 
tion fagade  is  well  worth  notice,  and  so  is  the  belfry 
tower,  separated  from  the  church  and  tapering  up  to 
a  tall  stone  spire.  Inside  the  church  there  are  some 
fine  choir  stalls  of  the  fifteenth  century,  of  which  the 
carving  of  the  misericordes  is  very  interesting  in  its 
variety  and  quaintness  of  design. 

The  Loire  at  Vendome  divides  into  several  small 
streams,  and  in  walking  through  the  town  one 
appears  continually  to  be  crossing  a  succession  of 
bridges  and  coming  upon  fresh  pictures  of  clear 
green  water  fringed  by  low-roofed  houses  and  dark 
lavoirs  with  their  curtains  of  snowy  linen.    Outside 

[  ISO] 


CHARTRES 

the  town  the  river  winds  smoothly  away  past  the  cool 
quiet  of  the  public  gardens,  to  join  its  tributaries 
and  cut  its  silver  channels  through  the  distant  water- 
meadows. 

"  The  route  lay  along  the  plateau  until  the 
heights  were  reached  which  enclose  the  valley  of 
the  Loir;  the  road  winds  down  to  the  river  beside 
hanging  woods,  red  with  autumn  leaves  not  yet 
fallen,  and  crowned  with  a  ridge  of  firs.  A  corner 
is  turned  and  Vendome  comes  in  sight,  lying  beneath 
the  shelter  of  the  old  ruined  castle  on  the  hill.  As 
the  horsemen  enter  the  town  the  people  all  come  to 
the  doors  of  their  houses  and  gaze  with  every  sign 
of  interested  curiosity.  There  is  an  anxious  expres- 
sion in  their  faces.  They  do  not  welcome,  though 
they  obey  their  visitors  with  alacrity.  They  bring 
forth  bread  and  meat  and  wine,  and  lay  the  tables 
for  breakfast,  but  good  cheer  they  have  none  to 
give." — The  Times:  "  Prussian  Occupation  of 
Vendome." 


[  iSi] 


ORLEANS,   BOURGES,   AND   NEVERS 


*'^^^^^HE  thought  that  the  name  of  the  city 
itself  is  most  likely  to  call  up  is  that  of 
the  Maid  who,  born  far  away  from 
Orleans,  has  taken  its  name  as  a  kind 
of  surname  .  .  .  We  have  got  into  a  way  of  think- 
ing ...  as  if  Orleans  had  its  chief  being  as  the 
city  of  the  Maid."  Orleans  certainly  does  share  with 
Rouen  the  chief  honours  of  association  with  Joan  of 
Arc,  the  "  Victrix  Anglorum,"  as  she  is  described  on 
a  memorial  tablet  in  the  Cathedral,  and  the  town  is 
equally  full  of  monuments  to  her  memory,  though 
the  memory  in  this  case  is  that  of  a  great  triumph, 
whereas  at  Rouen  it  marks  the  last  stage,  captivity 
and  death. 

Orleans  was  the  key  of  central  and  southern 
France,  and  if  the  English  once  got  possession  of 
it  they  would  certain  overrun  all  the  land  south  of 
the  Loire;  hence  its  importance  to  France  as  a 
stronghold.    Joan  set  out  from  Blois  late  in  April, 

[  152  ] 


ORLEANS,   BOURGES,   AND   NEVERS 

1429,  in  charge  of  a  convoy  of  provisions  for  the 
beleaguered  city,  and  arrived  opposite  the  town,  on 
the  left  bank  of  the  Loire. 

From  November  to  the  end  of  April  the  English 
had  lain  before  the  town,  and,  although  the  inhabi- 
tants were  not  actually  starving,  provisions  were  very 
scanty,  and  the  bringing  in  of  fresh  supplies  was 
practically  an  impossibility,  since  the  usual  means  of 
approach,  the  bridge  across  the  Loire,  was  blocked 
by  the  enemy,  who  occupied  the  outstanding  fortress 
of  Les  Augustins  at  the  bridge,  and  on  the  right  bank. 
On  the  Orleans  bank  the  English  had  built  several 
strong  bastilles,  guarding  the  city  and  effectually 
preventing  any  communication  by  means  of  the  west- 
ern highways.  The  weak  spot  was  on  the  east  side, 
where  the  besiegers  had  one  stronghold  only,  the 
fortress  of  Saint  Loup;  and  from  this  point  Dunois, 
the  general-in-chief,  and  La  Hire,  the  leader  of 
Joan's  army,  intended  to  effect  an  entrance;  but  the 
Maid  herself,  with  that  love  of  directness  which 
characterises  her  whole  career,  desired  to  attack  the 
English,  not  at  their  strongest,  but  at  their  weakest 
point.  Both  wind  and  stream  were  against  their 
ferrying  over  to  Saint  Loup;  and  in  the  end  Joan's 
simple  tenacity  and  childish  belief  in  the  counsel  of 
her  "  voices "  carried  the  day.  The  army  was  sent 
back  to  Blois,  there  to  cross  to  the  right  bank  and 

L  153  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

attack  Orleans  from  the  west,  and  meanwhile  she 
herself,  the  wind  having  turned,  crossed  in  a  boat 
by  night  and  entered  the  town  with  La  Hire  and 
Dunois.  She  was  hailed  by  the  people  of  Orleans 
as  an  angel  of  deliverance,  and  lodged  in  the  house 
of  the  treasurer  Boucher,  near  the  Porte  Regnart  at 
the  north-west  angle  of  the  city  walls ;  and  from  this 
vantage  point  Joan  watched  the  enemy's  movements, 
appearing  from  time  to  time  upon  the  ramparts  and 
bidding  defiance  to  the  English,  who,  as  was  perhaps 
natural,  retorted  by  showering  insults  upon  her.  On 
May  4  she  rode  out  in  full  state  to  meet  her  army 
which  had  arrived  from  Blois.  Three  days  later  the 
great  fight  began.  All  this  time  the  English  troops 
had  scarcely  moved  a  finger  to  hinder  the  French 
operations,  but  when  the  enemy  crossed  the  river  by 
a  bridge  of  boats  and  made  a  feint  of  attacking  the 
fortress  on  the  left  bank,  retreating  apparently  in 
confusion,  the  English  sallied  forth  after  them,  thus 
provoking  a  real  attack  upon  the  bridge  fort.  Dur- 
ing the  fray  the  girl-leader  was  wounded ;  never  for 
a  moment  did  she  give  in,  but  stood  in  the  fosse 
grasping  the  white  banner — sword  she  would  not 
wield — and  cheering  on  her  companions;  with  the 
result  that  by  nightfall  the  position  was  gained,  the 
English  were  driven  out,  and  Joan  returned  in 
triumph  into  Orleans  by  the  bridge.    The  greater 

[  154  ] 


>    >      >    >  >       > 


ORLEANS,  BOURGES,  AND  NEVERS 

part  of  her  victory  was  now  accomplished.  On  the 
following  day  the  French  forces  marched  outside 
the  walls  of  the  town  to  meet  the  English  line;  but 
Talbot  and  his  men  had  not  reckoned  with  what 
they,  in  the  superstition  of  their  time,  believed  to  be 
"  a  force  not  of  this  world,"  and  the  morning  light 
shone  upon  their  helmets  and  spears  in  full  retreat 
towards  the  north.  France  was  saved,  and  a  clear 
field  was  left  for  Charles  the  Dauphin — the  gates  of 
his  kingdom  were  flung  open  wide,  that  he  might 
enter  in  and  possess  it. 

But  the  greatness  of  Orleans  belongs  to  an 
earlier  day,  before  Joan  heard  the  voices  in  the 
Domremy  meadows,  probably  before  Domremy 
ever  existed.  It  was  Attila  the  Hun  who.  in- 
directly brought  the  town  up  the  ladder  of  fame. 
Aurelianum  in  the  fifth  century  was  a  desirable 
stronghold,  and  as  such,  Attila  spied  it  afar  from 
his  Asiatic  plains,  and  set  out  to  conquer,  and,  as 
one  authority  has  it,  to  "  vainly  besiege  "  it,  though 
Freeman  inclines  to  the  opinion  that  "  the  business 
of  West  Goth  and  Roman  was,  in  the  end,  not  to 
keep  them  (the  Huns)  out,  but  to  drive  them  out." 
However  that  may  be,  Attila  was  eventually  forced 
to  give  up  his  project,  and  Aurelianum  emerged 
from  the  struggle  glorious  and  triumphant,  to  be- 
come the  seat  and  stronghold  of  kings,  and,  until  its 

[  155  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

union  with  Paris  in  613,  the  capital  of  a  separate 
kingdom.  Since  then  it  has  been  the  scene  of  siege, 
martyrdom  and  persecution,  down  to  the  days  of  the 
Franco-Prussian  war,  when  it  finished  an  eventful 
history  by  a  Prussian  occupation  in  October,  1870,  a 
sequel  to  the  battles  of  Patay  and  Bonbay. 

Orleans  is  beautifully  placed  on  a  hillside  over- 
looking the  Loire.  With  this  physical  advantage, 
and  its  long  list  of  historical  associations,  one 
cannot  help  feeling  that  it  might  have  done  better 
for  itself,  and  have  become  more  than  just  a  quiet, 
unobtrusive  and  rather  dull  city,  with  all  its 
monuments  easily  attainable.  The  Cathedral  is 
an  example  of  the  last  lingering  phase  of  Gothic 
architecture,  and  was  rebuilt,  so  we  are  told — after 
its  destruction  by  the  Huguenots — during  the 
interval  between  1600  and  1829.  The  building  as  a 
mass  has  great  merit,  for  the  architects  have  made  an 
effort  to  clothe  it  with  dignity,  and  one  feels  that  the 
church  itself  is  conceived  in  a  spirit  to  make  it,  cer- 
tainly at  a  distance,  not  unworthy  of  the  stronghold 
of  Clovis  and  his  successors. 

The  train  which  we  took  from  Orleans  to 
Bourges  was  slow  enough  to  enable  us  to  look  out, 
almost  as  easily  as  from  a  voiture,  at  the  richly 
wooded  country.  Here  and  there  a  small  pyramidal 
church  tower  peeps  out  from  the  trees,  but,  as  a 

[  156  ] 


THE  HOUSE  OF  JACQUES  COEUR,  BOURGES 


'r'c''',',t'cc  t         c         '      '^ 


ORLEANS,  BOURGES,  AND  NEVERS 

rule,  there  is  little  sign  of  life  in  this  pleasant 
country,  and  even  the  fields  and  the  gorse-covered 
commons  are  bare  of  sheep  and  cattle.  This 
train-d' omnibus,  in  discharge  of  its  functions  as 
a  mail  train,  distributed  letter-bags  at  every  station. 
Here  were  waiting  young  girls  acting  as  postmis- 
tresses, many  of  whom  had  come  from  a  consid- 
erable distance,  having  ridden  on  bicycles,  bare- 
headed, in  the  scorching  sun,  along  dusty  roads,  to 
deliver  up  their  heavy  loads  and  to  enjoy  a  chat  with 
the  travelling  postman,  who  was  evidently  welcomed 
by  them  as  bringing  all  the  latest  bits  of  gossip  along 
the  line. 

About  a  mile  away  there  is  a  very  beautiful  view 
of  the  town,  and  the  general  effect  is  a  grey  one. 
Roofs  and  houses — the  latter  perhaps  originally  built 
of  yellow-white  stone — have  all  weathered  to  a  beau- 
tiful grey,  and  there  is  an  air  of  mediaevalism  about 
the  place.  Bourges,  indeed,  like  many  other  towns 
in  France,  goes  back  to  early  days  for  its  greatness, 
and  belongs  far  more  to  the  past  than  to  the  present. 
The  fifteenth  century  saw  it  at  the  height  of  its  fame 
as  a  king's  residence;  Charles  VII.,  perhaps  finding 
the  more  northerly  towns  too  hot  for  him  during  the 
English  occupation,  took  up  his  abode  there  and  be- 
came for  the  time  being  "  King  of  Bourges " ;  and 
Louis  XL  founded  a  university  in  the  town. 

[  157  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES    OF   FRANCE 

Here  was  born  the  famous  Bourdaloue,  and 
Boucher,  the  painter  of  Versailles  before  "  le 
Deluge,"  Boucher  who  was 

"  a  Grasshopper,  and  painted — 
Rose-water  Raphael — en  couleur  de  rose. 
The  crowned  Caprice,  whose  sceptre,  nowise  sainted, 
Swayed  the  light  realms  of  ballets  and  bon-mots; 
Ruled  the  dim  boudoir^s  demi-jour,  or  drove 
Pink-ribboned  flocks  through  some  pink-flowered  grove," 

and  who  now,  his  Grasshopper  days  ended,  lies 
buried  beside  his  mother  in  the  Church  of  Saint 
Bonnet. 

Perhaps  the  principal  interest  of  old  Bourges 
centres  in  the  name  of  Jacques  Cceur,  the  merchant 
prince,  "  a  Vanderbilt  or  a  Rothschild  of  the 
fifteenth  century,"  who  in  his  days  of  prosperity 
built  a  great  house  on  the  hill-side  where  his  native 
town  stands.  Coeur,  we  are  told,  founded  the  trade 
between  France  and  the  Levant;  later  he  became 
Master  of  the  Mint  in  Paris,  and  one  of  the  Royal 
Commissioners  to  the  Languedoc  Parliament.  He 
was  three  times  sent  on  an  embassy  to  foreign  powers, 
notably  to  Pope  Nicholas  V.  Charles  VII.,  weak, 
unstable,  and  always  in  need  of  money,  relied  on  him 
absolutely,  but  with  the  usual  characteristics  of  a 
weak  master,  was  one  of  the  first  to  desert  and  despoil 

[  158] 


-'  '  -WtM 

^■n:,-z^ 

'M'M-m 

bk 

'^HLi. 

i^aiik^    '  IHbSHI 

ii 


BOURGES 


ORLEANS,  BOURGES,  AND  NEVERS 

him  of  his  wealth  when  occasion  oflered.  The  be- 
ginning of  the  end  came  through  a  disgraceful  and 
apparently  quite  unfounded  accusation  against  Coeur 
at  the  time  of  the  death  of  the  famous  Agnes  Sorel, 
whom  he  was  accused  of  poisoning.  Jacques  was  too 
prosperous  not  to  have  enemies,  and  these  were,  as 
usual,  prompt  to  use  every  opportunity  against 
him.  The  first  steps  taken,  calumnies  of  all  kind 
poured  in  to  defame  the  man  whom  France  had  once 
delighted  to  honour,  and  the  rest  of  his  career  is  a 
strange  mixture  of  exile,  mysterious  captivity,  and 
equally  mysterious  escape,  honourable  reception  in 
Rome,  and  friendship  with  the  Pope;  the  last  scene 
of  all,  perhaps  the  strangest  and  most  foreign  to  all 
idea  of  a  peaceful,  prosperous  merchant — for  here 
we  see  him  in  command,  not  of  a  fleet  of  trading  ships 
laden  with  merchandise,  but  of  vessels  of  war  sent 
against  the  Turks  by  Pope  Calixtus  III.  Rumour 
has  it  that,  far  from  dying  in  poverty  and  sorrow, 
Jacques  Coeur,  at  the  end  of  his  life,  had  acquired 
greater  riches  than  when  at  the  zenith  of  his  fame  in 
France,  but  the  fact  remains  that  he  died  in  exile, 
with  a  cloud  over  his  memory  which  was  not  cleared 
away  until  many  years  after,  when  popular  favour 
again  smiled  on  his  name,  and  he  became,  what  he 
remains  to  this  day,  the  citizen-hero  of  Bourges. 
There  is  a  very  charming  description — too  long  to 
[  159  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF    FRANCE 

quote  here — in  Mr.  Henry  James'  "Little  Tour  in 
France"  of  the  house  of  Jacques  Coeur;  and  one 
point  of  interest  attaching  to  it  is  that  it  is  built  upon 
the  old  defences  of  the  town,  and  at  the  back  are 
many  considerable  remains  of  solid  Roman  bastions. 
It  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  types  of  a 
fifteenth-century  town-house  that  can  possibly  be 
imagined — a  veritable  remnant  of  the  ancient  pros- 
perity of  Bourges,  of  a  time  when  such  houses  were 
no  uncommon  feature  in  the  street? — when  men  who 
had  made  their  fame  and  fortune  loved  to  build  for 
themselves  a  beautiful  home  in  their  native  town, 
and  enrich  it  with  every  conceivable  ornament. 
Modern  nouveaux  riches  indeed  do  the  same,  though 
perhaps  not  in  their  native  place,  where  their  mem- 
ory as  butcher  or  baker  might,  in  their  eyes,  tell 
against  them;  but  the  difference  between  their  "  man- 
sions "  and  the  hotel  of  Jacques  Coeur  is  the  differ- 
ence between  an  age  when  the  Renaissance  w^as  in  its 
early  freshness  and  an  age  when  it  has  suffered  the 
degradations  of  many  modern  horrors  in  the  style 
that  is  popularly  designated  "  handsome."  No  one 
looking  upon  the  delicate  sculptures,  the  wonderful 
wood  carving,  the  courtyard  with  its  cloister,  the 
lovely  porticos  and  galleries,  can  doubt  the  taste  of 
the  man  who  built  and  lived  in  this  "  maison  pleine 
de  mysteres." 

[  i6o  ] 


3     >    >    >      J     > 


THE  MUSEE  CUJAS,  BOURGES 


r    •    c  e  (    o 


ORLEANS,  BOURGES,  AND  NEVERS 

The  Cathedral  of  Bourges,  which,  as  Freeman 
points  out,  is  essentially  French,  although  at  the 
head  of  the  Aquitanian  churches,  is  well  seen  in  ap- 
proaching the  town,  where  it  rises  above  a  base  of 
grey  tiles  and  warm  white  walls — a  long  flank  of 
choir  and  nave,  unbroken  by  transepts.  The  thrust 
of  the  heavy  vaulting  is  stopped  by  a  perfect  forest 
of  flying  buttresses,  between  whose  walls  are  built 
chapels,  either  for  chantries  or  family  monuments. 
From  inside  the  town  It  is  not  much  in  evidence  until 
one  ascends  the  Rue  Royale,  where  one  comes  upon 
it  quite  unexpectedly  at  the  end  of  what  Mr.  Henry 
James  calls  a  "  short  vague  lane,"  somewhat  in  the 
same  manner  as  one  comes  upon  St  Paul's  bursting 
into  view  at  the  top  of  Cheapside. 

The  absence  of  transepts  accounts  naturally  for  the 
want  of  any  central  tower  or  lantern,  and  as  there 
are  no  heavy  transept  pillars  supporting  the  arches 
at  the  crossing,  to  intercept  the  view,  the  elevation 
of  the  Host  is  visible  to  every  worshipper,  and  the 
eye  travels  in  one  sweep  through  nave  and  choir  to 
the  beautifully  jewelled  windows  of  rich  old  glass, 
ranging  from  the  twelfth  to  the  seventeenth  century. 
The  east  terminal  vaulting  springs  so  low  as  to  mask 
part  of  the  side-lights  of  the  apse.  This  is  also  very 
noticeable  in  the  east  end  of  Sens  Cathedral,  the 
beauty  of  whose  windows  is  marred  by  the  vaults 

[  i6i  3 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

cutting  across  the  heads  of  the  lights.  At  Bourges, 
however,  the  spandril  or  cheek  of  the  vault  is  pierced 
by  a  foliated  light,  showing  a  certain  amount  of  the 
window  behind,  and  thus  taking  away  the  appear- 
ance of  depression  in  the  low  springing  vaulting  of 
the  apse. 

It  is  easily  recognised  that  in  point  of  historical 
importance  Nevers,  in  comparison  with  some  of  its 
neighbours,  dwindles  almost  into  insignificance,  and 
to  the  traveller  coming  from  Orleans  and  Bourges, 
fresh  from  the  scene  of  the  triumphs  of  Joan  of 
Domremy,  and  from  the  seats  of  French  kings  when 
France  was  at  the  height  of  her  power,  there  may  be 
a  slight  sense  of  disappointment  at  not  finding  the 
same  historical  "  lions  "  at  Nevers.  History,  though 
not  passing  over  the  town  entirely,  has  only  touched 
it  with  a  gentle  hand,  and  Nevers,  though  possessed 
of  plenty  of  material  for  making  itself  a  name,  has 
never  really  risen  very  far  above  being  the  capital  of 
the  Nivernais.  It  existed  in  Roman  days  under  the 
Celtic  name  of  Noviodunum;  Caesar  made  use  of  it 
as  a  military  depot  in  his  Gallic  campaign,  and 
thought  the  town  was  of  sufficient  importance  to  be  a 
storehouse  for  the  imperial  treasure;  its  countship 
dates  from  the  tenth  century,  and  it  became  the  seat 
of  a  bishop,  although  later  than  many  of  the  Au- 
vergne  cities.    Yet  the  counts  of  Nevers  never  made 

[  162  ] 


THE   HOTEL-DE-VILLE,   NEVERS 


ORLEANS,  BOURGES,  AND  NEVERS 

a  stir  in  the  world,  as  did  Odo  and  Thibaut  of  Char- 
tres,  or  the  Fulks  and  Geoffreys  of  Angers,  and 
nowhere  on  its  ecclesiastical  roll  do  we  find  a  name 
like  Hilary  of  Poitiers  or  Martin  of  Tours.  Despite 
these  early  deficiencies,  however,  Nevers  has  much  to 
interest  the  casual  visitor,  and  there  are  four  prin- 
cipal attractions — the  Cathedral  of  St.  Cyr,  the  Ro- 
manesque church  of  St.  Etienne,  the  ducal  palace 
(now  the  Palais  de  Justice),  and  the  Porte  du 
Croux. 

The  early  church  of  St.  Etienne,  begun  in  1063, 
is  a  fine  example  of  a  Romanesque  building.  It  is 
also  a  very  severe  example,  with  a  nave  of  round- 
headed  pier  arches,  double-arcaded  triforium  and 
small  clerestory  lights.  The  bays  of  the  nave  are 
modified  in  the  choir  by  the  pier  arches  being  stilted, 
by  a  small  triple-lighted  triforium,  and  by  more 
importance  being  given  to  the  clerestory  windows. 
There  are,  also,  monolithic  columns  and  hollow- 
necked  capitals,  which  are  unusual  in  France.  The 
church  is  covered  by  a  barrel  vault,  the  crossing  of 
the  transepts  being  crowned  by  a  dome.  Mr.  Spiers, 
in  his  book  on  "  Architecture  East  and  West"  says: 
"  The  French  builders  of  the  South  of  France  have 
always  had  the  credit  of  being  the  originators  of  the 
barrel  vault,  with  its  stone  or  tile  roof,  absolutely 
incombustible,  lying  direct  on  the  vault;  to  them  also, 

[  163] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

I  contend  now,  we  owe  the  development  of  the  dome, 
with  its  pendentives  set  out  in  a  manner  peculiar  to 
themselves,  and  in  no  way  corresponding  to  those 
found  in  the  East." 

The  Cathedral  of  St.  Cyr  is  the  only  church  in 
France — ^with  the  exception  of  Besangon — ^which 
possesses  an  apse  at  both  the  east  and  west  ends.  St. 
Gall  in  Switzerland,  Mittelzall,  Laack  and  many 
other  German  churches  show  this  remarkable  plan 
of  a  western  tribune  or  paradise.  In  some  instances 
it  was  used  as  a  tomb-house,  with  entrance  from  with- 
out by  means  of  a  staircase.  In  the  old  basilicas, 
however,  the  tribune  was  not  unfrequently  at  the 
west  end,  so  that  the  officiating  priest  could  at  the 
same  time  face  the  east  and  also  his  congregation. 
The  crypt  at  the  west  end,  with  its  fine  Romanesque 
capitals,  is  very  interesting,  and  dates  from  the  early 
part  of  the  eleventh  century,  being  about  contem- 
porary with  that  of  the  Cathedral  of  Auxerre.  The 
original  church,  with  its  two  transept  arches  of  the 
same  date,  was  lengthened  eastwards  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  later  on  had  the  further  addition  made 
of  a  choir  with  an  apsidal  termination;  the  chancel 
and  nave  are  not  separated  by  transepts,  but  the  two 
merge  quietly  into  each  other  by  simple  contact. 

One  afternoon,  while  contemplating  this  strange 
church,  our  attention  was  diverted  from  arch  and 

[  164  ] 


THE  PORT  DU  CROUX,  NEVERS 


ORLEANS,  BOURGES,  AND  NEVERS 

apse  by  the  rustle  of  a  small  bridal  procession  enter- 
ing by  a  side  door  and  being  received  by  a  priest  who 
was  waiting  at  an  altar  in  one  of  the  chapels.  After 
some  formalities  of  examining  the  certificate  of  civil 
registry,  the  ceremony  began;  and  it  was  very  inter- 
esting in  its  brevity  and  friendliness.  In  the  English 
church  the  priest  addresses  the  principals,  with  a 
kind  of  austere  familiarity,  by  their  Christian  names, 
be  they  princes  or  paupers.  But  here  such  a  liberty 
is  rendered  impossible  by  the  natural  social  polite- 
ness of  the  French,  and  the  contracting  parties  are 
reminded  of  their  marriage  obligations  under  the 
courteous  appellations  of  Monsieur  and  Mademoi- 
selle. 

The  ducal  palace  is  quite  close  to  the  Cathedral. 
"  We  find,"  Freeman  says,  "  the  two  great  central 
objects,  State  and  Church,  sitting  becomingly  side 
by  side.''  The  ducal  days  of  Nevers  date  only  from 
the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  when  Frangois  P", 
with  his  usual  love  of  display,  bestowed  a  peerage 
upon  the  Nivernais.  Before  this  its  feudal  over- 
lords went  by  the  more  mediaeval  title  of  count,  and 
the  palace  (built  a  century  before  the  count  became 
a  duke)  has  reared  itself  upon  the  foundation  of  their 
ancient  stronghold.  The  fourth  attraction  of  Nevers, 
the  high  square  gateway  tower  known  as  the  Porte 
du  Croux,  may  also  be  regarded  as  a  relic  of  feudal 

[  165  3 


CATHEDRAL    CITIES    OF   FRANCE 

days,  seeing  that  it  dates  from  1398,  and  was  evi- 
dently part  of  the  town's  defences.  It  is  a  noble 
specimen  of  mediaeval  defence,  a  tall  gateway  tower, 
protected,  like  the  Porte  Guillaume  at  Chartres,  by 
its  ancient  fosse — long  lancet  openings  running  up 
above  a  low  round  archway  and  two  pointed  turrets 
flanking  the  hatchet-shaped  central  roof,  with  the 
treacherous  line  of  machicolation  below.  In  the 
middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  Nevers  passed  to  an 
Italian  master,  one  of  the  Gonzagas  of  Mantua,  from 
whom,  a  hundred  years  later,  Mazarin  bought  it 
back  again,  and  left  it  at  his  death  to  the  Mancini 
family,  who  held  it  until  the  Revolution. 

Most  French  towns  nowadays  fill  their  shops  with 
a  display  of  local  pottery,  good,  bad  and  indifferent; 
the  industry  of  Nevers,  however,  is  an  old-established 
one,  dating  from  the  occupation  of  these  very  Gon- 
zagas, who  came  from  a  land  where  the  faience  in- 
dustry, as  well  as  glass-blowing,  was  fully  developed 
as  a  fine  art,  and  who  founded  in  their  domain  a 
school  of  artists  which  should  teach  their  secrets  to 
France.  The  industry  has  remained  in  the  town  ever 
since,  and  some  of  the  modern  work  is  very  charm- 
ing, with  its  curious  trade-sign,  the  little  green  ara- 
besque knot  or  nceud  vert,  which  some  fanciful  spirit 
designed  for  the  sign  of  Nevers. 

[  166] 


MOULINS,   LIMOGES,   AND   P^RIGUEUX 

HROM  Nevers  an  expedition  to  Moulins  is 
quite  practicable,  and  the  traveller  en 
route  to  Limoges  may  think  it  worth  his 
while  to  pay  a  visit  to  this  town,  which 
stands  as  a  monument  to  the  fallen  house  of  Bourbon. 
In  the  fourteenth  century  the  dukes  of  Bourbon  made 
Moulins  their  residence,  and  stayed  there  until  the 
desertion  of  the  Constable  to  the  cause  of  Charles  V., 
when  the  city  was  annexed  by  the  French  king, 
Frangois  V\  in  an  access  of  righteous  indignation. 
The  "  Tour  de  THorloge,"  which  is  the  main  feature 
of  the  town,  and  looks  more  like  a  Dutch  belfry  than 
a  French  design,  formed  part  of  the  old  chateau  be- 
longing to  this  same  Constable;  and  it  may  be  sup- 
posed that  not  only  were  his  lands  confiscated,  but  his 
castle  destroyed,  by  way  of  punishment  for  his  alli- 
ance with  the  English  king  and  the  German  emperor. 
The  story  of  this  Constable  de  Bourbon  is  an 
interesting  one.    He  belonged  to  the  Montpensier 

[  167] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

branch  of  the  Bourbon  family,  and  in  1505  married 
Suzanne  de  Beaujeu,  heiress  of  the  reigning  line,  so 
that  the  title  of  duke  and  the  rich  Bourbon  estates 
passed  into  his  possession,  and  therewith  Charles 
became  one  of  the  most  brilliant  figures  in  an  age  of 
brilliancy  and  magnificence.  His  handsome  person 
and  military  talents  had  even  in  early  youth  gained 
him  a  place  amongst  the  foremost  gentlemen  of 
France;  but  his  marriage  brought  him  such  an  access 
of  wealth  and  influence  that  even  Louis  XII.  trem- 
bled for  the  safety  of  his  throne,  and  refused  to  risk 
any  increase  in  his  popularity  by  giving  him  com- 
mand of  the  Italian  army.  In  15 15,  however,  when 
the  Due  d'Angouleme  came  to  the  throne  as  Frangois 
T",  Bourbon  was  made  Constable  of  France,  and  for 
a  time  seemed  to  have  attained  to  all  that  Fortune 
could  give  him.  He  was  the  close  friend  of  the  king, 
and  in  an  era  of  lavish  display  that  came  with  the 
first  Frangois,  and  did  not  wholly  disappear  until  it 
was  swept  away  by  the  hand  of  the  Revolution,  no 
favours  seemed  too  great,  no  honours  too  high,  for  the 
brilliant  and  much-envied  favourite.  To  such  a 
height  did  Charles  de  Bourbon  reach,  that  one  can, 
indeed,  hardly  wonder  at  his  fall,  which  was  bound 
to  come  sooner  or  later,  and  when  it  did  come  was  all 
the  greater,  all  the  swifter,  from  the  very  might  of  his 
power  at  court.    The  mischief  arose  in  the  first  place 

[  168  ] 


MOULINS,    LIMOGES,  AND    PERIGUEUX 

through  the  jealousy  of  the  king's  mother — reports 
and  scandals  were  in  the  air,  and  Frangois  was  not 
slow  to  take  note  of  them — and  of  the  growing  dis- 
trust of  his  favourite  at  court.  Quarrels  arose  be- 
tween King  and  Constable.  Presently  the  evil  re- 
ports took  definite  shape,  and  grew  into  the  grossest 
of  insults ;  and  as  soon  as  it  was  seen  that  Bourbon  had 
lost  the  King's  favour  all  tongues  were  loosened 
against  him.  Added  to  these  troubles,  he  was  en- 
gaged in  a  lawsuit  with  the  mother  of  Frangois,  the 
Duchess  d'Angouleme,  who  on  the  death  of  his  wife 
Suzanne  claimed  the  heirship  to  all  his  estates  and 
fortune.  As  may  be  imagined,  on  the  principle  of 
striking  a  fallen  man,  the  case  went  against  him,  and 
the  great  duke  found  himself  friendless  and  penni- 
less, with  large  sums  owing  to  him  from  the  State, 
but  with  little  hope  of  payment.  Men  in  those  days 
were  not  over-chivalrous,  and  the  idea  of  clinging 
still  to  an  ungrateful,  ungenerous  sovereign  who  had 
cast  him  off  like  an  old  glove  did  not  commend  itself 
to  a  nature  like  that  of  Charles  de  Montpensier.  He 
resolved,  since  France  would  have  none  of  him,  to 
try  his  fortune  with  Germany,  and  accordingly 
joined  the  cause  of  Charles  V.,  to  whom  for  a  time 
he  gave  his  best  service,  and  then,  finding  the  im- 
perial promises,  too,  like  the  proverbial  pie-crust, 
determined  to  carve  out  honours  for  himself  and 

[  169  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

find  a  kingdom  in  Italy.  He  marched  to  Rome  with 
a  division  under  his  command,  and  made  a  bold 
attack  upon  the  city  walls,  but  an  arrow  from  the 
ramparts,  shot,  so  one  story  goes,  by  Benvenuto 
Cellini,  the  famous  sculptor  and  court  musician  to 
the  Pope,  put  an  end  to  his  ambition,  and  the  Con- 
stable died  in  harness  outside  the  walls  of  Rome  at 
the  very  outset  of  his  gallant  attempt  to  cast  off  the 
yoke  of  kings  and  make  his  fortune  by  his  own  sword. 

Of  Bourbon's  chateau  there  remains  only  the 
tower  bearing  the  curious  name  of  the  Mal-Coiffee, 
and  a  Renaissance  pavilion — an  appendage  found 
in  the  castle  of  every  great  noble  of  this  time. 

In  the  eleventh  century  Moulins  was  one  of  the 
more  southerly  fortresses  to  hold  out  against 
William  of  Normandy.  It  had  been  commanded 
by  a  certain  Wimund,  who  surrendered  it  to  Henry, 
the  French  king.  As  an  important  outpost  it  was 
garrisoned  strongly  and  put  under  the  command 
of  Guy  of  Geoffrey,  Count  of  Gascony,  presently 
to  become  William  VIII.  of  Aquitaine.  The 
Norman  duke,  however,  was  advancing  upon 
Arques,  which  was  within  an  ace  of  surrender 
from  hunger,  and  with  little  difficulty  he  obtained 
terms  from  the  garrison.  News  of  this  defeat 
soon  flew  to  Moulins,  and  its  commander  seems  to 
have  been  instantly  seized  with  an  access  either  of 

[  170  ] 


•   »•  »  •    1  * 


MOULINS 


•;  • 


'  •      C  c 


MOULINS,    LIMOGES,  AND    PERIGUEUX 

panic  or  of  prejudice — the  two  bore  a  curious 
relation  in  those  days — and  without  giving  the 
Normans  time  so  much  as  to  come  within  sight  of 
the  town,  he  withdrew  his  garrison  and  left  Moulins 
with  all  speed. 

The  Cathedral  at  Moulins  has  a  curious  misfit 
of  nave  and  chancel.  The  former  is  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  with  a  high  clerestory  and 
rather  low  triforium  arches;  the  latter  is  Flam- 
boyant, with  a  flat  wall  termination  to  the  east  end, 
and  seems  to  have  been  built  without  any  regard  to 
the  pre-existing  nave;  at  any  rate,  the  main  piers  do 
not  meet,  and  a  small  bay  of  no  particular  style  is 
introduced  literally  as  a  stop-gap. 

An  excellent  hotel — the  "  Central  " — makes 
Limoges  a  convenient  stopping-place  on  the 
southern  road,  irrespective  of  its  attractions  to 
those  interested  in  faience  and  enamel  work;  but 
there  are  plenty  of  other  interests  within  the  town, 
and  Limoges  may,  indeed,  speak  for  itself  in  this 
respect,  by  reason  of  its  standing  on  a  hill,  over- 
looking a  river,  and  containing,  in  the  old  quarter 
at  least,  ancient  houses  and  crooked  streets  enough 
to  satisfy  any  craving  for  the  picturesque.  The 
town  slopes  up  a  hill  rising  from  the  Vienne,  and 
really  divides  into  two  distinct  parts,  ville  and 
cite;  the  ville  is  the  newer  town  straggling  up  the 

[  171  ] 


CATHEDRAL    CITIES    OF    FRANCE 

slope,  while  the  cite,  the  original  camping-ground 
of  the  Lemovices,  occupies  the  quarter  near  the  river. 
So  distinct  were  these  two  in  the  Middle  Ages  that 
we  even  read  of  war  between  them  as  between  two 
separate  states,  the  ville  led  by  the  abbot  of  Saint 
Martial,  the  cite  by  the  bishop.  The  great  church  of 
the  river  quarter  is  the  Cathedral  of  Saint  Etienne, 
built,  so  tradition  has  it,  upon  the  remains  of  a  for- 
mer church  erected  by  Saint  Martial,  and  dating 
from  1 273- 1 327,  with  a  few  later  alterations.  The 
west  end  terminates  in  the  substructure  of  an  old 
Romanesque  campanile,  resting  on  pillars.  "The 
lowest  story,"  says  Freeman,  "after  a  fashion  rare 
but  not  unique,  stood  open.  Four  large  columns 
with  their  round  arches  supported  a  kind  of  cupola." 
Under  the  choir  is  a  crypt,  dating  from  the  eleventh 
century,  and  thus  at  each  end  of  the  later  church  is 
a  relic  of  an  older  time. 

Limoges  had  formerly  been  favourable  to  the 
English,  but  since  the  dukes  of  Berri  and  Bour- 
bon had  laid  siege  to  the  town,  and  had  been  aided 
by  Bertrand  du  Guesclin,  the  inhabitants,  including 
the  bishop  and  the  governor,  gave  up  their  some- 
what wavering  allegiance  and  turned  to  France.  On 
hearing  of  this  defection  the  Prince  of  Wales  flew 
into  a  great  passion  and  "  swore  by  the  soul  of  his 
father,  which  he  had  never  perjured,  that  he  would 

[  172  ] 


MOULINS,   LIMOGES,  AND    PERIGUEUX 

not  attend  to  anything  before  he  had  punished 
Limoges;  and  that  he  would  make  the  inhabitants 
pay  dearly  for  their  treachery."  The  price  they  had 
to  give  was  the  safety  of  their  city.  Edward  marched 
upon  Limoges  from  Cognac  with  a  large  force;  but 
the  new  masters  had  garrisoned  the  town  so 
strongly  that  it  was  impossible  to  take  it  by 
assault.  He  therefore  resolved  upon  another  and 
a  more  terrible  way.  He  undermined  the  fortifi- 
cations, and  set  fire  to  the  mine,  so  that  a  great 
breach  was  made.  Froissart  describes  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  town  as  very  repentant  of  their 
treachery,  but  adds  poignantly  that  their  penitence 
did  little  good,  now  that  they  were  no  longer  the 
masters;  and  certainly  it  was  not  rewarded  by 
mercy.  The  English  troops  rushed  into  the  breach 
and  poured  down  the  narrow  streets,  massacring 
right  and  left,  plundering  and  burning,  sparing 
neither  women  nor  children;,  and  when  the  Prince 
at  last  turned  back  to  Cognac,  he  left  behind  him 
ruin  and  desolation  where,  a  few  days  before,  had 
been  strength  and  prosperity.  During  this  terrible 
time  the  Church  of  Saint  Etienne  happily  escaped 
from  damage,  although  all  the  rest  of  the  old  town 
— "old"  even  in  1370 — seems  to  have  been  de- 
stroyed. An  interesting  reminder  of  more  modern 
history  remains  in  the  name  of  one  of  the  streets. 

[  173  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

The  Cathedral  is  connected  with  the  Place  Jourdan 
by  the  "  Rue  du  71*^°*"  Mobiles ";  and  this  street  is  so 
named  in  recognition  of  the  valour  shown  by  this 
regiment  in  the  field,  and  in  the  memory  of  those 
killed  during  the  Prussian  war.  It  is  an  assurance 
that  their  heroism  and  endurance  in  a  hopeless  strug- 
gle are  not  forgotten,  and  that  an  equal  devotion  to 
their  country  will  be  shown,  should  the  need  arise, 
by  succeeding  generations  of  their  fellow-citizens. 
Monuments  are  not  readily  subscribed  for,  nor  are 
places  where  they  may  be  erected  easily  found.  A 
permanent  testimony  to  the  gallant  services  of  a  regi- 
ment might  be  borne  by  calling  a  street  after  its  name. 
London  accorded  a  great  welcome  to  its  volunteers 
at  the  termination  of  the  Boer  war.  Is  there  any 
street  or  place  called  after  the  name  of  the  City 
Imperial  Volunteers? 

In  a  cathedral  city  like  Limoges,  where  the 
church  itself  has  a  good  deal  of  interest  and  the  town 
is  not  devoid  of  attraction,  one  is  not  readily  in- 
clined to  place  its  industrial  interests  very  high  on 
the  list  of  things  to  be  seen ;  yet  the  fact  remains  that 
in  this  particular  place  the  chief  industry  is  closely 
bound  up  with  the  town's  history.  The  Limoges 
school  of  enamel  workers  had  attained  celebrity  as 
early  as  the  twelfth  century,  when  the  champ-leve,  or 
engraving  process,  was  in  vogue,  the  ground-work  of 

[  174] 


MOULINS,    LIMOGES,  AND    PERIGUEUX 

the  plates  consisting  of  graven  copper  and  the  cavi- 
ties filled  in  with  enamel.  This  kind  of  work  may 
well  be  seen  in  Westminster  Abbey  upon  the  tomb  of 
Aymer  de  Valence,  Earl  of  Pembroke.  In  the  four- 
teenth century  France  borrowed  from  Italy  the  art 
of  transparent  enamelling,  which  the  artists  at 
Limoges  developed  into  enamel-painting,  and  this 
branch  was  carried  on  at  Limoges  for  upwards  of 
two  centuries,  until  it  fell  into  decay  under  Louis 
XIV.  and  gave  place  to  the  modern  miniature  style. 
Under  Frangois  I^^  this  art  of  enamel-painting 
attained  to  a  high  degree  of  perfection.  The 
sixteenth-century  taste  inclined  always  towards  the 
brilliant  and  magnificent,  and  the  same  love  of 
display  and  richness  which  showed  both  in  dress  and 
in  architecture  found  also  expression  in  the  art  of 
enamelling.  One  of  the  most  famous  artists  of  this 
school  came  from  Limoges,  whence  he  was  known  as 
Leonard  Limousin.  His  work  became  the  pattern 
of  excellence  after  which  all  lesser  artists  strove. 
*^  While  some  of  the  works  were  executed  in  brilliant 
colours,  most  of  them  were  in  monochrome.  The 
background  was  generally  dark,  either  black  or 
deep  purple,  and  the  design  was  painted  en  grisaille, 
relieved,  in  the  case  of  figure  subjects,  by  delicate 
carnation.  The  effect  was  occasionally  heightened 
by  appropriate  touches  of  gold,  and  in  many  of  the 

[  175  ] 


CATHEDRAL    CITIES    OF   FRANCE 

coloured  enamels  brilliancy  was  obtained  by  the  use 
of  silver  foil,  or  paillon,  placed  beneath  a  transparent 
enamel." 

At  Perigueux  we  seem  to  have  left  Northern 
France  in  the  far  distance  and  to  have  taken  the 
first  definite  step  into  the  Midi.  The  architectural 
pilgrim  as  he  wanders  southward  is  conscious  of 
the  existence  of  two  distinct  styles,  possessing 
features  dissimilar  in  construction  and  design;  in 
one  case  he  finds  barrel-vaulted  churches,  in  another 
large  churches  roofed  with  pointed  domes,  whose 
origin  it  is  difficult  to  determine.  Of  the  latter  type 
the  church  of  Saint  Front  is  a  notable  instance.  It 
rises  above  the  old  quarter,  which  occupies  the  centre 
of  the  town,  the  modern  portion,  quite  distinct  from 
the  rest,  as  was  the  case  at  Limoges,  sloping  up  the 
hill,  and  the  remnant  of  the  old  Roman  city  fronting 
the  river.  The  original  Vesunna  of  the  Petrocorii 
stood  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Isle;  the  Roman 
Vesunna  crossed  to  the  other  side,  and  is  now  repre- 
sented by  the  ruins  of  an  amphitheatre,  dating  from 
the  third  century,  and  some  second-century  baths. 
The  old  Chateau  Barriere  is  also  built  on  Roman 
fortifications,  and  two  of  the  Roman  towers  still 
remain,  besides  the  "  Tour  de  Vesone,''  which  was 
probably  part  of  a  pagan  temple. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  here  the  ancient  remains 
[  176  ] 


> 

ui 

H 
O 

a:; 

lit 

g 

t-H 

i? 
O4 


MOULINS,    LIMOGES,  AND    PERIGUEUX 

of  the  Roman  city  should  be  so  much  more  promi- 
nent than  is  usually  the  case.  At  Bourges  we  saw 
the  house  of  Jacques  Cceur  built  upon  a  Roman 
foundation,  and  many  other  places  keep,  in  part  at 
least,  their  Roman  walls;  but  Perigueux  has  Roman 
remains  which  absorb  quite  half  the  interest  aroused 
by  the  city  on  the  Isle — the  other  half  being  devoted 
to  the  church.  From  the  site  of  the  Gallic  Vesunna, 
on  the  left  side  of  the  river,  the  Tour  de  Vesone  is 
the  foremost  object,  so  old  that,  as  Freeman  says,  it 
looks  almost  modern.  "  It  is  a  singular  fact  that, 
while  a  mediaeval  building  can  scarcely  ever  be  taken 
for  anything  modern,  buildings  of  earlier  date  often 
may.  The  primeval  walls  of  Alatri  might  at  a  little 
distance  be  taken  for  a  modern  prison,  and  this  huge 
round,  it  must  be  confessed,  has  to  some  not  undis- 
cerning  eyes  suggested  the  thought  of  a  modern  gas- 
works." Then  the  partly  mediaeval  Chateau 
Barriere  attracts  notice,  dating  at  its  latest  from  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  and  by  its  name  re- 
calling one  of  the  noblest  families  of  mediaeval 
Perigord. 

With  the  rise  of  the  abbey  of  Saint  Front,  a  new 
town  arose  also,  and  the  old  quarter  shrank  up  within 
itself,  remaining  still  the  abode  of  the  nobles  and 
gentlemen  and  the  clergy  of  Saint  Etienne,  but  yield- 
ing the  real  precedence  to  the  vigorous  new  puy 

[  ^77  ] 


CATHEDRAL    CITIES    OF   FRANCE 

higher  up  the  hill.  ''  Here,  as  in  some  measure  at 
Limoges,  the  tables  are  turned.  The  ville  stands 
apart  on  the  hill,  with  the  air  of  the  original  cite, 
while  the  real  cite  abides  below,  putting  on  some- 
what the  look  of  a  suburb."  Even  Saint  Etienne,  the 
old  Cathedral-church  of  La  Cite,  has,  owing  to  its 
partially  ruined  condition,  practically  renounced  its 
importance  both  in  intrinsic  position  and  in  external 
appearance.  The  great  tower,  which  once  stood  at 
the  west  end,  has  gone  entirely;  the  cupolas  which 
crown  each  bay  show  the  relation  to  those  at  Saint 
Front,  and  in  place  of  the  eleventh-century  apse 
stands  a  flat  wall,  terminating  in  a  choir  of  a  century 
later. 

The  church  of  St.  Front  is  "  the  only  domed 
church  in  France  with  the  Greek  cross  for  its  plan.'^ 
The  original  building  is  said  to  have  been  conse- 
crated in  1047  by  the  Archbishop  of  Bourges  and 
burnt  down  in  a  great  fire  in  11 20.  It  was  not  until 
after  this  date  that  the  five-domed  church  and  the 
tower  on  the  west  side  were  constructed.  "  By  this 
time  the  Church  of  Saint  Mark  at  Venice  was  com- 
pleted, as  far  as  its  main  structure  was  concerned, 
and  already  the  panelling  of  the  walls  with 
marble  and  the  decoration  of  its  vaults  and  arches 
with  mosaic  had  made  some  progress.  It  was  one  of 
the  wonders  of  Europe,  and  the  idea  of  copying  its 

[  178] 


g 


MOULINS,    LIMOGES,  AND    PERIGUEUX 

plan  and  general  design  would  appeal  at  once  to  a 
race  of  builders  who  for  more  than  a  century,  as  I 
shall  prove  later  on,  had  been  building  domed 
churches  throughout  Aquitaine,  who  were  perfectly 
acquainted  with  their  own  methods  of  building 
domes  and  pendentives,  and  therefore  would  not  be 
obliged  to  trust  to  foreign  workmen  to  execute 
them."— Mr.  R.  Phen^  Spiers. 

It  would  be  quite  out  of  our  province  to  follow 
out  Mr.  Spiers'  arguments  in  support  of  this  theory, 
as  it  would  lead  us  into  the  entangled  b3rways  of  a 
discourse  on  methods  of  "  bedding  '^  and  centring 
^arches  and  pendentives.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  he 
clearly  points  out  the  difference  which  exists  between 
French  and  Byzantine  domes,  capitals  and  voussoirs 
and  the  prevalence  of  the  Aquitaine  style,  and  on  this 
evidence  maintains  that  French,  and  not  Greek  or 
Venetian  architects,  built  the  abbey  church  of  Saint 
Front.  This  conclusion  is  also  supported  by  Viollet- 
le-Duc,  who  expresses  his  opinion  that  Saint  Front 
was  undoubtedly  built  by  a  Frenchman  who  had 
studied  either  the  actual  Church  of  Saint  Mark  at 
Venice  or  who  had  had  opportunities  of  seeing  the 
design  of  the  Venetian  architects.  Its  general  con- 
ception, it  is  true,  was  Venetian  and  quasi-Oriental, 
but  its  construction  and  details  do  not  recall  in  any 
way  the  decorative  sculpture  or  method  of  building 

[  179  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES    OF   FRANCE 

which  obtained  at  St.  Mark's  at  Venice.    As  to  the 
ornament,  it  belongs  to  the  late  Romanesque  style. 

Saint  Front  must  indeed  have  appeared  a  strange 
erection  and  unique  in  conception  amongst  its 
sister  churches,  and  no  doubt  exercised  a  great 
influence  over  the  builders  of  churches  north  of  the 
Garonne  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries.  The 
infusion  of  Oriental  art  into  this  part  of  the  country 
is  explained  by  the  distinguished  French  archaeolo- 
gist, M.  Felix  de  Verheilh,  as  partly  due  to  the  pres- 
ence of  Venetian  colonies  established  at  Limoges. 
He  says  that  the  commerce  of  the  Levant  was  carried 
into  France  and  into  England  along  trade  routes 
existing  between  Marseilles  or  Narbonne  and  La 
Rochelle  or  Mantes.  The  landing  of  Eastern 
produce  at  these  ports  on  the  Mediterranean  and  its 
carriage  overland  to  the  north-western  seaboard  of 
France  was  rendered  necessary  to  protect  it  from  the 
Spanish  and  Arab  pirates  who  infested  the  coasts  of 
Spain  and  Africa,  and  also  to  avoid  the  risk  of  storms 
and  heavy  seas  of  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar. 


[  i8o] 


ANGOUlImE   and   POITIERS 

HNGOULEME  has  at  a  distance  more  the 
appearance  of  an  Italian  than  of  a  French 
town.  The  heavy  red  pantiles,  the  cam- 
panile and  dome  of  the  Cathedral,  the 
little  terraces  sloping  up  the  hill,  all  recall  the  south- 
ern towns;  but  the  river  with  its  fringing  poplars 
finally  proclaims  the  city's  nationality.  There  is 
nothing  of  especial  interest  to  be  seen  in  the  town 
itself.  Angouleme — Ecolisma  of  the  Gauls — has  of 
course  had  its  history;  it  suffered  pillage  by  Visigoth 
and  Norman,  w^as  annexed  by  England,  re-taken  by 
France,  occupied  again  by  the  English,  and  finally 
made  over  to  its  rightful  sovereign  in  1369. 

During  the  Hundred  Years'  War  Angouleme 
was  in  the  possession  of  the  English,  and  under 
the  governorship  of  Sir  John  Norwich  surrendered 
to  France.  The  Duke  of  Normandy  lay,  we  are 
told,  "  for  a  very  considerable  time  "  before  the  town, 
and  the  inhabitants  waited  daily  for  the  Earl  of 

[  181  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

Derby,  who  was  to  relieve  them,  but  who  showed  no 
signs  of  approach.  The  French  made  a  raid  upon 
the  English  cattle  under  the  guidance  of  the 
seneschal  of  Beaucaire  and  captured  not  merely  the 
beasts,  who — strange  laxity — were  pasturing  outside 
the  walls  of  the  town,  but  several  of  the  English  who 
rushed  out  to  recover  their  possessions.  Finally  the 
governor  began  to  lose  hope;  Derby  was  nowhere 
within  reach,  the  French  gave  no  signs  of  with- 
drawal, and  worse  than  all,  the  townsfolk  began  to 
murmur  and  to  declare  as  far  as  they  dared  for  the 
enemy.  Norwich  and  his  immediate  followers 
found  themselves  in  some  danger;  but  by  a  clever 
stratagem  they  escaped  from  surrendering  themselves 
to  Normandy.  A  truce  was  called,  and  under  cover 
of  this  the  governor  and  his  friends  sallied  quietly 
forth  from  the  gates,  passed  through  the  entire 
French  army,  without  hurt,  and  took  the  road  to 
Aiguillon  before  the  enemy  had  realised  what  they 
were  about.  Meanwhile  the  disaffected  within  the 
town  readily  gave  themselves  up  to  the  Duke,  and 
received  his  mercy. 

Here,  however,  as  at  Nevers,  an  up-and-down  his- 
tory has  left  little  mark  upon  the  town,  and  Free- 
man's criticism  is  no  more  than  the  truth:  "  Except 
we  went  on  purpose  for  the  view,  we  should  hardly 
go  to  Angouleme  at  all."    Saint  Pierre  at  Angou- 

[  182  ] 


ANGOULEME   AND   POITIERS 

leme  is  another  example  of  the  domed  church  that 
we  left  at  Perigueux;  but  while  the  cupolas  carry  on 
the  same  half-Byzantine  idea  as  prevails  in  Saint 
Front,  the  tower  at  the  north  transept  brings  in  a 
train  of  thought  which  is  distinctly  Italian;  more- 
over, at  Perigueux  all  five  cupolas  are  well  seen 
from  the  outside,  whereas  here  only  one  appears,  to 
balance,  or  rather  to  contrast  with,  the  north 
tower.  Once  inside  the  church,  however,  the 
other  domes  appear,  roofing  over  the  nave,  which  is 
without  aisles,  after  the  manner  of  the  Angevin 
churches.  In  its  original  form  the  Cathedral  of 
Saint  Pierre  was  begun  early  in  the  twelfth 
century — about  1120 — but  it  has  been  twice 
restored,  once  in  1654  and  once,  in  the  middle  of  the 
last  century,  by  M.  Abadie. 

It  was  planned  simply  with  a  nave  roofed  by  four 
cupolas  and  a  choir  with  four  radiating  apsidal 
chapels.  Later  on  in  the  century  the  love  of  build- 
ing places  of  worship  larger  and  more  suited  to  the 
growing  desire  for  an  enriched  ceremonial  and 
elaborate  ritual  resulted  in  the  addition  of  transepts 
surmounted  by  towers,  which  gave  to  the  Cathedral 
of  Saint  Pierre  at  Angouleme  the  distinction  of  being 
one  of  the  first,  if  not  the  first,  of  domed  churches 
built  on  the  plan  of  a  Latin  cross.  Of  the  two  towers 
only  one,  the  northern  tower,  exists  to  this  day,  the 

[  183  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

southern  transept  being  roofed  by  a  flat  conical  dome. 
Certain  further  additions  were  made  about  the  same 
time,  such  as  the  western  fagade  with  its  sculptured 
portal.  The  black  lines  of  the  ashlar  work,  as  if 
ruled  with  a  lead  pencil,  detract  very  much  from  the 
impressiveness  of  the  interior,  as  they  give  undue 
emphasis  to  the  horizontal  joints  and  arrest  the  eye 
in  its  first  natural  flight  from  floor  to  vault. 

Saint  Pierre  at  Poitiers  is  a  church  of  a  very 
different  description.  Certain  characteristics  it 
has  which  connect  it  with  the  Angevin  style,  but 
unlike  most  of  the  Angevin  churches,  it  has  aisles 
throughout.  From  the  outside  the  appearance  is 
that  of  a  single  mass,  long  and  low,  and  very  wide, 
for  the  aisles  are  nearly  as  broad  as  the  nave;  as  at 
Bourges,  there  is  no  central  tower  at  the  crossing;  but 
then  at  Bourges  we  have  a  great  French  church,  a 
mighty  mass  rising  sheer  up  from  the  ground,  un- 
broken by  any  transept;  here  at  Poitiers  there  are 
transepts,  but  the  line  of  their  towers  comes  below  the 
line  of  the  roof,  and  the  effect  given  is  one  of  length 
without  height.  Height  is  also  wanting  in  the  two 
unfinished  and  unequal  west  towers,  and  the  east  end 
literally  falls  flat,  by  reason  of  its  bare  terminal  wall; 
the  apse,  to  which  one  grows  so  accustomed  in  a 
French  church,  is  seen  only  from  the  interior.  It  is 
oblong  in  plan,  showing,  as  M.  VioUet-le-Duc  points 

[  184] 


ANGOULEME  AND   POITIERS 

out,  no  sign  either  of  choir  or  sanctuary.  The  tran- 
septs are  more  like  side  chapels  with  altars  on  their 
eastern  walls.  There  is  no  sign  of  northern  influ- 
ence, and  the  church  is  in  many  of  its  features  unique 
and  without  imitators.  Certain  details  of  construc- 
tion bring  it  into  line  with  St.  Maurice  at  Angers; 
it  is  an  ordinary  example  of  the  churches  of  Poitou, 
with  their  three  naves  of  equal  height  and  Byzantine 
cupolas. 

To  the  south  of  the  Cathedral  lies  what  alone 
would  make  Poitiers  worth  a  visit,  without  the  other 
churches  which  call  for  notice — the  little  Temple 
Saint-Jean,  said  to  be  the  oldest  baptistery  in  France, 
and  dating  probably  from  the  fourth  century.  Once 
inside,  we  can  realise  the  position  of  the  officiating 
priest  and  the  place  occupied  by  the  rooms  where 
the  converts  disrobed  themselves  and  whence  they 
were  conducted  to  the  central  basin,  fed  by  a  con- 
tinual stream  of  water,  where  stood  the  bishop,  the 
typical  representative  of  the  first  Baptist.  Freeman 
says:  "It  is  the  one  monument  of  the  earliest 
Christian  times  which  lived  on,  so  to  speak,  in  its  own 
person,  and  is  not  simply  represented  by  a  later  build- 
ing on  the  same  site.  It  is  the  truest  monument  of 
Hilary." 

The  name  of  Poitiers  churches  really  is  legion,  but 
there  are  two  more  which  should  not  be  passed  over 

t  i8S] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

— first,  Notre-Dame-la-Grande,  a  beautiful  Roman- 
esque church  standing  in  the  market-place,  with  a 
long  barrel-vault  roof,  unbroken  by  transepts,  and 
terminated  by  towers  ornamented  with  "  fish-scale '' 
pattern;  next  the  church  of  Sainte  Radegonde,  the 
queen-saint  of  the  sixth  century,  wife  to  the  first 
Chlothar.  She  lived  among  the  nuns  of  her  own 
foundation  of  the  Sainte  Croix,  and  lies  buried  in 
the  crypt  of  her  church,  which  contains  also  a  marble 
statue,  erected  indeed  to  her  memory,  but  in  the  like- 
ness of  another  queen  who  had  few  pretensions  to 
saintliness — Anne  of  Austria,  mother  of  Louis  XIV. 

Fortunatus  also  became  a  monk  of  Poitiers,  that 
he  might  at  least  have  the  satisfaction  of  living  near 
this  queen,  whom  he  worshipped. 

The  nuns  of  Sainte  Croix  went  to  England  and 
founded  there  a  sisterhood  on  the  Green  Croft  near 
Cambridge,  and  this  priory  remained  until  the  end 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  when  the  foundation  was 
suppressed  by  Bishop  Alcock,  and  became  part  of 
the  corporation  of  Jesus  College. 

It  is  with  a  certain  feeling  of  apology  toward 
tradition  and  childish  days  that  one  leaves  to  the 
very  last  the  mention  of  the  Black  Prince's  great 
fight.  Not  until  we  have  reached  fairly  mature 
years  do  we  realise  that  Poitiers  has  a  cathedral  and 
a   baptistery   and   many   churches;   but   there   are 

[  i86  ] 


C/J 


ANGOUL]^ME  AND   POITIERS 

very  few  of  us  who  do  not  associate  with  the 
earliest  days  of  history  books  the  name  of  the  "  Battle 
of  Poitiers,  1356."  More  properly  it  is  the  Battle  of 
Maupertuis,  and  Freeman  indeed  denies  its  right  to 
"  come  into  the  immediate  story  of  the  city." 

A  short  account  may  not  be  out  of  place  here, 
however,  since  the  battle,  whether  in  or  out  of 
Poitiers,  does,  nevertheless,  stand  out  as  a  landmark 
in  the  long  struggle  between  English  and  French. 
Having  stormed  and  taken  the  Castle  of  Pomerantin, 
Prince  Edward  marched  downwards  through  Anjou 
and  Touraine;  and  from  the  scarcity  of  fodder  on 
the  way  he  began  to  conclude  that  the  French  king 
could  not  be  far  off.  Arrived  at  a  village  near 
Chauvigny,  on  the  Vienne,  he  engaged  in  a  skirmish 
with  some  of  the  enemy,  and  learned  that  John's 
army  Tiad  marched  forward  towards  Poitiers ;  there- 
fore, forbidding  any  further  engagement,  he  pushed 
on  with  all  possible  speed,  and  came  up  with  the 
French  some  leagues  from  the  town,  on  the  plains 
of  Maupertuis.  The  French  king  himself  was  just 
about  to  enter  Poitiers,  but  hearing  that  the  English 
had  come  up  and  were  attacking  his  rear-guard,  he 
turned  back  into  the  fields  and  there  encamped  his 
forces.  Meanwhile  the  English  entrenched  them- 
selves in  a  well-guarded  position  between  hedges  and 
vineyards,  and  waited  there  until  the  morning,  when 

[  187  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

John^s  army  rode  out  into  the  plain.  *'  Then  might 
be  seen  all  the  nobility  of  France,  richly  dressed  out 
in  brilliant  armour,  with  banners  and  pennons  gal- 
lantly displayed;  for  all  the  flower  of  the  French 
nobility  were  there;  no  knight  or  squire,  for  fear  of 
dishonour,  dared  remain  at  home."  At  the  last 
moment  an  attempt  at  mediation  was  made  by  the 
Cardinal  de  Perigord;  but  as  the  French  king  would 
listen  to  no  terms  save  unconditional  surrender, 
which  the  English  prince  refused,  his  labour  was  in 
vain;  and  the  following  day  the  armies  drew  up  in 
line  of  battle.  "When  the  Prince  of  Wales  saw, 
from  the  departure  of  the  Cardinal  without  being 
able  to  obtain  any  honourable  terms,  that  a  battle  was 
inevitable,  and  that  the  King  of  France  held  both 
him  and  his  army  in  great  contempt,  he  thus 
addressed  himself  to  them:  ^Now,  my  gallant 
fellows,  what  though  we  be  a  small  company  as  in 
regard  to  the  puissance  of  our  enemy,  let  us 
not  be  cast  down  therefore,  for  victory  lieth  not  in 
the  multitude  of  people,  but  where  God  will  send  it; 
if  it  fortune  that  the  journey  be  ours,  we  shall  be  the 
most  honoured  people  of  all  the  world;  and  if  we 
die  in  our  right  quarrel,  I  have  the  king,  my  father, 
and  brethren,  and  also  ye  have  good  friends  and  kins- 
men; these  shall  avenge  us.  Therefore,  for  God's 
sake,  I  require  you  to  do  your  devoirs  this  day,  for 

[  i88  ] 


ANGOULEME   AND    POITIERS 

if  God  be  pleased  and  Saint  George,  this  day  ye  shall 
see  me  a  good  knight' "  Then  the  battle  began  in 
earnest,  the  English  shouting  "  Saint  George  for 
Guienne!  "  The  French  answering  with  "  Montjoie 
Saint  Denis!"  Froissart  gives  a  very  long  and  de- 
tailed account  of  the  fight  in  all  its  part,  with  lists 
of  the  nobles  and  knights  who  were  killed  and 
wounded,  and  in  many  cases  stories  of  their  several 
adventures — none  of  which  have  place  here.  It  will 
be  enough  to  say  with  the  old  chronicler  himself, 
that,  in  spite  of  the  odds  against  the  Black  Prince, 
"  it  often  happens  that  fortune  in  love  and  war  turns 
out  more  favourable  and  wonderful  than  could  have 
been  hoped  for  or  expected.  To  say  the  truth,  this 
battle  which  was  fought  near  Poitiers,  in  the  Plains 
of  Beauvois  and  Maupertuis,  was  very  bloody  and 
perilous;  many  gallant  deeds  of  arms  were  per- 
formed that  were  never  known,  and  the  combatants 
on  each  side  suffered  much."  The  rest  is  known  to 
every  one,  the  taking  of  King  John  of  France,  the 
gallant  work  of  the  archers,  and  the  commendation 
of  the  Prince  by  his  father,  who  had  watched  the 
fight  from  afar. 

Even  without  the  battle  the  story  of  Poitiers  is  a 
sufficiently  varied  one,  and  connected  in  a  great 
measure  with  the  story  of  England,  if  it  be  remem- 
bered that  Eleanor,  wife  of  our  Henry  II.,  was  also 

[  189  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

Countess  of  Poitou  and  brought  it  to  England  as 
part  of  her  dowry;  and  in  English  hands  it  remained 
until  Philip  Augustus  saw  fit  to  confiscate  all  our 
French  territory  in  1204.  After  the  peace  of 
Bretigny  Poitou  passed  to  England  once  more,  only 
to  be  surrendered  to  Bertrand  du  Guesclin  in  the 
course  of  the  next  ten  years.  Here  at  Poitiers 
Charles  VII.  was  proclaimed  King  of  France;  and, 
in  contrast,  it  is  likewise  interesting  to  note  that  here 
also  was  held  a  court  of  inquiry  upon  the  misde- 
meanours of  Joan  of  Arc,  by  whose  aid  Charles  was 
not  only  proclaimed  but  crowned  King.  After  this 
the  English  prestige  in  France  dwindled  to  nothing, 
and  therefore  the  joint  history  stops  at  this  point,  and 
the  history  of  Poitou  and  Poitiers  stands  for  France 
alone. 


[  190  ] 


LA  ROCHELLE  AND  BORDEAUX 

HA  ROCHELLE  calls  to  mind  two  things 
principally:  first,  the  great  resistance  of 
the  Huguenots  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
and  then  the  siege  and  the  expeditions 
under  Buckingham  in  the  early  days  of  Charles  I. 
These  two  events  are  really  part  of  the  same  struggle 
for  supremacy  between  Calvinist  and  Romanist,  only 
divided  by  a  period  of  quiescence  under  the  rule  of 
Henri  de  Navarre,  who,  having  professed  both 
faiths  in  his  day,  probably  knew  how  to  keep  the 
two  parties  at  peace.  Before  the  religious  wars 
La  Rochelle  was  known  as  a  flourishing  and  peace- 
ful seaport  town;  but  no  sooner  had  Conde  and 
Coligny  shown  their  faces  there  in  1568  as  leaders 
of  the  Huguenot  faction,  than  a  spirit  of  warfare, 
provocative  as  well  as  defensive,  seemed  to  pervade 
the  town,  and  even  on  the  high  seas  the  cruisers  of 
La  Rochelle  were  a  terror  to  the  Romanist,  since  in 
the  cause  of  the  true  faith  no  Huguenot  stopped  at 

[  191  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

piracy  and  plunder.  From  this  first  struggle  La 
Rochelle  emerged  with  flying  colours,  but  in  the 
days  of  Richelieu  and  Buckingham  it  was  less  suc- 
cessful, and  traces  of  its  surrender  exist  to-day  in  the 
mole,  cutting  off  the  outer  harbour,  which  Richelieu 
laid  down  to  prevent  the  English  fleet  from  gaining 
further  entrance  to  the  port. 

The  first  attack  on  Buckingham's  part  was  made  in 
the  summer  of  1627.  A  war  with  France,  impending 
only  in  1625,  but  swift  to  take  definite  shape,  was 
among  the  inconvenient  legacies  bequeathed  by 
James  I.  to  his  son.  With  the  utmost  difficulty  a 
forced  loan  was  obtained  from  Parliament  in  order 
to  meet  the  war  expenses,  and  the  Duke  of  Bucking- 
ham was  put  in  command  of  the  fleet  which  sailed 
from  Portsmouth  in  June  to  the  relief  of  the  Hugue- 
nots whom  Richelieu  was  besieging  in  La  Rochelle. 
This  task  was  not  an  easy  one.  Before  gaining  the 
harbour  the  fleet  must  pass  the  fort  of  Saint  Martin 
on  the  island  of  Re.  This  island  had  been  strongly 
garrisoned  by  Richelieu,  but  the  English  squadron 
lay  between  the  fort  and  the  mainland,  cutting  off  all 
possibility  of  relief;  and  after  being  blockaded  for 
nearly  two  months  the  French  commander  signified 
to  Buckingham  his  willingness  to  surrender  the  next 
morning.  The  duke  was  in  the  highest  spirits  when 
the  welcome  news  arrived,  and  lay  down  to  rest  that 

[  192  ] 


)      > 

i    >  »    »  » 


>3.»-      »»,».>      »  » 


hJ 

W 
K 
u 
o 

< 

o 

PQ 
< 

W 
X 
H 

O 
H 

W 

u 
< 

H 

2: 


LA  ROCHELLE  AND  BORDEAUX 

night  with  the  joyful  certainly  of  carrying  all  before 
him,  driving  the  Cardinal  from  before  the  port  and 
entering  La  Rochelle  in  triumph.  But  the  morning 
broke  on  a  very  different  picture.  During  the 
night  an  easterly  gale  had  sprung  up  and  had  blown 
a  fleet  of  French  provision  boats  over  to  Re,  through 
the  very  midst  of  the  English  ships;  and  once  more 
Saint  Martin's  prepared  for  defence.  Nothing 
daunted,  Buckingham  sent  to  England  for  fresh 
troops,  and  if  the  supply  had  depended  upon  the  king 
he  might  still  have  gained  his  victory;  but  the  Par- 
liament, now  a  growing  power  in  England,  and  a 
power  whose  growth  was  making  itself  felt,  over- 
ruled the  royal  pleasure,  and  found  here  the  long- 
wished  for  opportunity  of  crushing  out  the  war,  of 
which  the  country  was  heartily  tired,  by  refusing  to 
grant  further  supplies.  Probably  the  fact  that 
Buckingham  was  no  favourite  with  the  people  also 
helped  to  turn  the  scale  against  him.  At  any  rate 
a  French  force  came  up  before  any  word  was  sent 
from  England,  and  the  duke  was  obliged  to  withdraw 
from  La  Rochelle  with  considerable  losses.  The 
sequel  is  well  known.  In  the  following  year  Charles 
prorogued  his  troublesome  Parliament,  and  once 
more  the  favourite  set  off  for  Portsmouth,  never  to 
reach  France,  since  the  dagger  of  John  Felton  put 
an  end  to  his  ambitions  and  avenged,  so  said  the 

[  193  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

English  people,  his  country's  wrongs.  Thus  La  Ro- 
chelle  was  left  entirely  to  the  tender  mercies  of 
Richelieu.  The  Huguenot  power  was  utterly 
broken  by  the  year's  siege  which  followed,  and  La 
Rochelle  found  itself  despoiled  of  the  prestige 
which  it  enjoyed  as  the  stronghold  of  the  Protestant 
faith. 

La  Rochelle  of  to-day  is  perhaps  little  known  to 
the  casual  traveller.  Inland  France  has  so  many  at- 
tractions that  most  travellers  never  get  so  far  as  the 
sea-coast;  great  churches  and  great  rivers  draw  them 
elsewhere,  and  ii  they  want  sea  breezes  there  is  al- 
ways Trouville  or  Etretat  ready  to  hand.  Neverthe- 
less, La  Rochelle  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  sea- 
ports in  France;  and  this  is  no  faint  praise,  for  all 
towns  of  this  kind  are  bound  to  have  a  peculiar  charm 
of  their  own — that  kind  of  charm  which  belongs  to 
a  harbour,  and  the  coming  and  going  of  ships,  and 
the  open  sea  beyond.  To  this  the  town  adds  certain 
attractions  of  its  own,  among  which  are  the  beautiful 
colours  of  the  boat-sails,  and  the  old  grey  forts  guard- 
ing the  harbour  on  either  side.  These  ancient  senti- 
nel towers  are  relics  of  the  prosperity  of  La  Rochelle, 
and  date  back  to  a  day  before  Buckingham  sailed  up 
to  the  port,  before  the  name  of  Huguenot  had  ever 
been  heard  in  France.  On  the  left  hand  the  Tour 
Saint-Nicolas,  built  at  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 

[  194  ] 


,>   >    J    »  ' 


w 


« 


LA  ROCHELLE  AND  BORDEAUX 

tury,  raises  four  round  crenellated  turrets  above  the 
harbour;  on  the  other  side  stands  the  Tour  de  la 
Chaine,  a  grim,  solid-looking  round  fortress;  and 
farther  on  still  may  be  seen  the  stone  fleche  of  the 
Tour  de  la  Lanterne,  looking  from  a  distance  like 
the  spire  of  a  church.  And  the  mention  of  churches 
brings  us  naturally  to  the  Cathedral,  which,  built  in 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  has  so  very 
little  to  say  for  itself  that  one  cannot  help  feeling  it 
to  be  a  poor  set-off  to  the  sea-board  of  the  tow^n; 
though  perhaps  it  might  in  any  case  be  useless  to  look 
for  beauty  of  this  kind  in  a  town  whose  inhabitants 
ranked  the  adorning  of  churches  as  one  of  the  deadly 
sins  of  Rome.  This  cathedral  was,  it  is  true,  built 
long  after  La  Rochelle  had  ceased  to  be  a  Huguenot 
stronghold;  but  when  we  remember  that  the  beauty 
of  any  former  church  would  have  fallen  a  victim  to 
the  fanatic's  hammer,  we  can  forgive  the  architect, 
and  cease  to  mourn  for  what  might  have  been.  The 
Cathedral  of  La  Rochelle  is  not  a  thing  of  beauty, 
but  at  any  rate  it  has  not  displaced  anything  that 
might  have  pleased  us  better. 

From  La  Rochelle  to  Bordeaux  the  road  runs  by 
heavy-leafed  plantations  of  every  kind  of  tree,  nota- 
bly acacias,  whose  great  size  is  particularly  apparent 
to  an  English  eye.  Then,  as  the  Bordelais  comes 
nearer,  we  run  down  to  the  smooth,  peaceful  Cha- 

[  195  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

rente,  winding  quietly  through  its  meadow  lands,  not 
unlike  the  upper  reaches  of  the  Thames,  and  yet  very 
unlike  in  one  respect,  since  the  water  is  completely 
deserted,  and  even  in  the  height  of  summer  few 
pleasure  boats  disturb  its  smooth  surface.  Boating 
as  an  amusement  per  se  has  very  little  place  in  the 
programme  of  a  French  country  gentleman,  though 
bathing  and  fishing  are  both  included  in  it;  and  the 
same  thing  is  noticeable  nearer  Paris,  on  the  Marne, 
where  a  pair-oar  gig,  if  ever  it  got  there,  would  part 
its  timbers  through  sheer  neglect,  and  break  up  in  a 
few  months. 

Bordeaux  itself  is  worthy  of  its  reputation,  and  is 
certainly,  strictly  speaking,  a  "  handsome  "  city,  with 
a  waterway  almost  as  grand  as  the  Thames  at  Lon- 
don, spanned  by  a  beautiful  bridge  of  red-brick  and 
stone,  built  in  1822,  which  might  well  serve  as  a 
mod'el  for  some  of  our  London  bridges.  It  is  a 
pleasant  place  enough  when  once  the  fact  of  its  being 
a  large  and  modern  city  is  accepted;  and  although  it 
has  not  the  romance  of  the  inland  hill-towns  nor  the 
picturesque  situation  of  La  Rochelle,  it  has  always 
been  a  city  of  note,  ever  since  the  Gauls  came  down  to 
the  river  and  called  their  settlement  Burdigala.  For 
three  centuries  it  belonged  to  England;  the  same 
Countess  Eleanor,  of  whom  we  heard  at  Poitiers, 
brought  it  to  her  English  husband,  Henry  II.,  and 

[  196  ] 


LA  ROCHELLE  AND  BORDEAUX 

for  some  reason  it  does  not  seem  to  have  been  in- 
cluded in  the  general  confiscation  of  English  terri- 
tory under  Philip  Augustus,  so  it  remained  an 
English  town  and  shared  in  English  victories  and 
defeats  until  Charles  VII.  was  crowned,  and  the 
English  retired  by  degrees  to  their  own  land.  Bor- 
deaux was  also  the  birthplace  of  poor,  weak,  well- 
meaning  Richard  II.;  and  his  father,  the  victor  of 
Poitiers,  held  his  court  in  the  town  for  some  time. 
Here  he  held,  too,  his  conference  upon  the  affairs  of 
Castile. 

Don  Pedro  was  at  that  time  engaged  in  a 
struggle  for  the  Castilian  throne  with  his  brother, 
who  was  not  the  lawful  heir.  Neither  prince  seems 
to  have  been  blameless  in  his  conduct,  and  Edward 
declared  that  he  only  upheld  the  claim  of  Pedro  on 
account  of  his  lawful  birth,  and  not  from  any  in- 
dividual deserts;  but  this  declaration  apparently 
failed  to  satisfy  the  rest  of  the  English  and  Gascons 
within  Bordeaux,  and  it  was  finally  decided  to  sum- 
mon a  council,  composed  of  all  the  barons  in  Aqui- 
taine,  "when  Don  Pedro  might  lay  before  them  his 
situation,  and  his  means  of  satisfying  them,  should 
the  prince  undertake  to  conduct  him  back  to  his  ow^n 
country,  and  to  do  all  in  his  power  to  replace  him 
upon  his  throne."  The  conference  resulted  in  a  de- 
cision in  favour  of  Pedro,  and  by  order  of  the 

[  197  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

English  king  a  certain  number  of  knights  and  men- 
at-arms  were  sent  from  Bordeaux  to  escort  the 
claimant  back  to  Spain  and  to  help  him  to  regain 
his  own,  all  expenses  being  paid  by  Castile — a  frugal 
method  of  rendering  aid! 

The  Cathedral  is  attributed  to  the  eleventh  and 
twelfth  centuries,  and  as  it  now  stands  consists  of  a 
large  nave,  without  aisles,  which  were  swept  away 
for  purposes  of  roof  construction,  as  at  Angers  and 
in  Notre-Dame-de-la-Couture  at  Le  Mans.  Accord- 
ing to  Mr.  Bond,  an  early  tower  was  built  in  550, 
which  was  noticed  by  Fortunatus.  In  plan  the 
building  shows  the  influence  of  the  well-known 
church  of  the  Cordeliers  at  Toulouse.  "  Its  western 
portion  is  a  vast  nave  without  aisles,  sixty  feet  wide 
internally  and  nearly  two  hundred  feet  in  length. 
Its  foundations  show  that,  like  that  at  Angouleme, 
it  was  originally  roofed  by  three  great  domes;  but 
being  rebuilt  in  the  thirteenth  century,  it  is  now 
covered  by  an  intersecting  vault  .  .  .  and  an 
immense  array  of  flying  buttresses  to  support  its 
thrust,  all  which  might  have  been  dispensed  with  had 
the  architects  retained  the  original  simple  and  more 
beautiful  form  of  roof." 

Within  easy  distance  of  Bordeaux  is  Libourne,  a 
little  town  upon  the  Dordogne,  which,  though  now 
overshadowed  by  the  great  port  of  the  Garonne,  was 

[  198] 


LA  ROCHELLE  AND  BORDEAUX 

in  the  Middle  Ages  of  almost  equal  importance  in 
the  wine-growing  country,  and  had  a  special  interest 
as  being  one  of  the  villes  bastides  found  in  several 
places  in  the  south  of  France,  especially  in  Guyenne. 
These  really  owe  their  origin  to  England,  for  they 
were  founded  by  Edward  I.  during  his  French  wars 
as  refuges  for  those  unable  to  take  an  active  part  in 
the  struggle. 

Mr,  Barker,  in  his  "  Two  Summers  in  Guyenne," 
gives  a  very  interesting  description  of  these 
towns,  noticing  particularly  the  straight  lines  of 
their  streets.  "  In  contrast  to  the  typical  mediaeval 
town  that  grew  up  slowly  around  some  abbey  or  at 
the  foot  of  some  strong  castle  that  protected  it,  and 
in  the  building  of  which,  if  any  method  was  observed, 
it  was  that  of  making  the  streets  as  crooked  as  pos- 
sible, to  assist  the  defenders  in  stopping  the  inward 
rush  of  an  enemy,  the  streets  of  the  bastide  were  all 
drawn  at  right  angles  to  each  other."  The  bastides 
were  built  merely  for  shelter,  not,  as  was  the  case 
with  other  towns,  for  defence  as  well,  though  in  the 
lawless  days  of  the  thirteenth  century  it  was  some- 
times necessary  even  here  to  put  up  a  wall,  palisade 
and  moat.  Libourne  has  a  remnant  of  such  fortifica- 
tion in  a  quaint  old  round  Tour  de  THorloge  with 
machicolations  and  a  pointed  roof.  The  term  bastide 
was  also  applied  to  a  single  work  of  defence  which, 

[  199  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

although  isolated,  formed  part  of  a  continuous  system 
of  fortification.  A  single  house  outside  the  walls  of 
a  town  was  also  called  a  bastide. 

Passing  out  from  Libourne,  we  reach  the  very 
heart  of  this  wine-growing  country — a  true  country 
of  the  south  it  seems  in  summer,  with  the  endless 
stretches  of  vineyards — row  after  row  of  green, 
twisting,  climbing  wreaths  round  their  stiff,  straight- 
poles,  under  a  blazing  southern  sky,  and  every  now 
and  then  a  single  hill  rising  suddenly  out  of  the  plain, 
whilst  the  river  slips  quietly  away  in  the  distance  to 
the  sea.  On,  or  rather  in,  one  of  these  hills  the  hermit 
fimllion  fixed  his  cave-dwelling,  far  back  in  the 
legendary  years  of  history;  and  now — strange  con- 
trast!— the  town  founded  by  this  ascetic,  abstemious 
saint  owes  its  fame  to  the  purple  juice  of  the  grape, 
and  sends  forth  from  its  slopes  not  water  from  his 
dripping  well,  but  good  red  wine  to  gladden  the 
heart  of  man.  A  visitor  to  Saint-fimilion  in  early 
summer  will  find  a  curious  greenness  over  everything 
— not  only  in  the  freshness  of  the  vineyards.  When 
evening  falls  the  very  labourers  rise  from  their  task 
and  move  home  through  the  dusk  like  so  many  green 
spectres — though  from  no  other  cause  than  from 
their  constant  watering  of  the  vines  with  sulphur- 
water  to  kill  off  the  devouring  insects. 

Irrespective  of  wine-growers,  Saint-fimilion  has 
[  200  ] 


LA  ROCHELLE  AND  BORDEAUX 

many  things  to  be  seen  on  its  crescent-shaped  hill. 
There  is  the  wonderful  church,  carved  out  of  the 
clifT-face,  now  in  ruins,  but  possessing  store  enough 
of  massive  square  piers  and  round-headed  arches  to 
bear  witness  to  its  ancient  grandeur;  and  a  separate 
Gothic  tower  and  spire  of  the  twelfth  century  points 
a  long  tapering  finger  above  the  narrow  creeper- 
grown  streets  and  low,  crowded  roofs  on  the  hill-side. 
The  church  to  which  the  tower  really  belongs  is  not 
this  curious  monument  carved  from  the  rock,  but  the 
collegiate  church  farther  up  the  hill,  now  used  as  a 
parish  church.  Other  monuments  there  are  besides 
— the  icy-cold,  moss-grown  vault  known  as  the 
"  Grotte  de  Saint-fimilion,"  where  superstitious 
maidens  drop  pins  into  the  well  to  find  out  when  they 
sh^ll  be  married ;  the  ruined  convent  of  the  Corde- 
liers, with  its  grass-grown  courts  and  ivy-covered 
cloister  arcades,  and  the  great  walnut  tree  whose 
branches  shade  an  empty,  silent  place  where  once  the 
brothers  chanted  and  the  novices  worked  at  their 
simple  tasks;  and  the  cave-dwellings,  where  seven  of 
the  Girondists  hid  from  the  wrath  of  the  Terror, 
sheltered  and  fed  by  a  kindly  couple  who  paid  later 
for  their  good  nature  by  the  guillotine,  after  four 
of  the  seven  refugees  had  been  captured  and  ex- 
ecuted. 
The  ancient  Saint-fimilion — the  town  to  which 

[  201   ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

most  of  these  buildings  carry  us  back — is  in  reality 
an  old  English  fortress,  growing  from  the  oppidum 
of  the  Gauls  to  the  fortified  stronghold  which  passed 
to  Edward  I.  and  continued,  with  a  few  interrup- 
tions, to  enjoy  the  privileges  of  a  royal  borough  of 
England  until  the  fifteenth  century. 


[   202   ] 


SENS,   AUXERRE,   AND   TROYES 

^^I^HE  Senones,  who  settled  on  the  banks  of 
M  C|  the  river  Yonne  and  founded  the  city  of 
^^^^^  Agenticum,  which  we  know  to-day  as 
Sens,  were  one  of  the  most  influential 
people  in  Gaul — even  the  Parisii  were  considered  of 
less  account — and  did  not  submit  to  the  Roman  yoke 
until  the  final  defeat  of  Vercingetorix.  The  change 
of  dominion,  however,  in  no  way  detracted  from  the 
importance  of  their  capital  city,  but  rather  enhanced 
it,  since  the  conquerors  made  the  town  metropolis  of 
the  fourth  Lugdunensis,  and  were  at  some  pains  to 
rebuild  it  in  a  fashion  befitting  its  position.  Six 
great  highways  met  within  its  walls;  arches,  aque- 
ducts and  amphitheatres  sprang  up  all  over  the  city, 
and  Agenticum  henceforth  became  a  prosperous 
and  powerful  stronghold,  well  able  to  withstand  the 
incursions  of  later  days,  of  which  there  were  many, 
on  the  part  of  the  Franks  and  the  Saracens  and, 
finally,  of  the  Normans. 

[  203  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

Christianity  was  introduced  by  the  martyr-saints 
Savinian  and  Potentian,  who,  as  at  Chartres,  built 
the  first  church  in  the  city,  thus  laying,  so  tradition 
has  it,  the  foundations  of  the  Cathedral  which  was 
to  come  in  after  times.  The  town  then  became  an 
archbishopric,  and  later,  like  most  towns  of  any 
standing,  a  hereditary  countship,  the  proximity  of 
the  two  overlords,  spiritual  and  temporal,  leading  not 
infrequently  to  disastrous  results,  especially  when  in 
the  twelfth  century  a  communal  power  sprang  up 
and  contributed  a  third  factor  to  the  contest. 

In  1234  Louis  IX.  married  Marguerite  de  Pro- 
vence in  the  Cathedral  of  Saint  Etienne,  and  on  his 
return  from  the  Holy  Land,  five  years  later,  with 
the  precious  relics  purchased  from  the  Emperor  of 
Constantinople,  the  reliquary  and  its  contents  were 
paraded  through  the  streets  in  a  palanquin,  borne 
by  the  king  and  his  brother,  Robert  d'Artois,  who 
walked  bare-headed  and  bare-footed  at  the  head  of 
the  procession,  casting  aside  all  their  royal  state — 
which,  indeed,  poor  Louis  would  have  gladly  left 
for  ever — to  set  an  example  of  reverent  homage  to 
the  people  of  Sens.  Thomas  a  Becket  lived  for  some 
months  in  the  Abbey  of  Sainte-Colombe  by  the  river- 
side, founded  by  one  of  the  Chlothars  in  the  seventh 
century  in  rtiemory  of  the  young  virgin  saint  who 
suffered  martyrdom  under  the  rule  of  Aurelian. 

[  204  ] 


SENS,  AUXERRE,  AND  TROYES 

Sens,  on  its  quiet,  graceful  little  river,  "  bending 
.  .  .  link  after  link  through  a  never-ending  rustle 
of  poplar-trees,"  is  a  picturesque  place,  like  most 
towns  which  have  left  their  importance  behind 
them  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  have  come  down  to 
modern  days  unmodernised.  Standing  on  the  far 
bank  of  the  Yonne,  looking  across  the  river 
reaches,  one  gets  a  very  delightful  picture  of  the 
town,  almost  like  that  of  some  of  our  English 
Cathedral  cities — the  shining  river,  the  green 
water-meadows,  and  above  them  the  deeper  green 
of  the  grand  old  trees,  clustering  round  the  great 
church,  whose  high  grey  tower  rises  from  their  midst, 
watching  the  town,  meadows  and  river  by  day  and 
by  night,  when  men  wake  and  when  they  take  their 
rest,  as  it  has  watched  ever  since  William  the  archi- 
tect built  up  its  stones  and  brought  their  pattern 
across  the  water  that  the  church  of  Britain's  first 
Christian  city  might  share  the  glories  of  her  sister  in 
France, 

Sens  is  not  very  well  known  to  travellers,  although 
there  is  no  cathedral  in  the  whole  breadth  of 
France  which  ought  to  be  dearer  in  the  eyes  of  every 
Englishman,  on  account  of  its  being  in  all  probability 
the  parent  of  the  choir  of  Canterbury.  Hither 
Becket  is  said  to  have  fled,  and  to  have  sought  sanctu- 
ary at  the  altar  of  St.  Thomas  against  the  persecu- 

[  205  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

tion  of  Henry  11.  Viollet-le-Duc  describes  St. 
Etienne  as  a  cathedral  unique  both  in  plan  and  style 
of  architecture — a  mixture  of  arches  both  round  and 
pointed,  such  as  we  find  in  the  choir  of  Canterbury, 
showing  how  much  it  is  under  the  influence  of  the 
Burgundy  school.  This  is  proved  by  the  great  simi- 
larity of  plan  between  the  other  Burgundy  cathe- 
drals, and  it  is  surmised  that  after  the  eleventh 
century  Autun,  Langres,  Auxerre  and  Sens  possessed 
certain  dispositions  of  plan  peculiar  to  themselves, 
which  were  adopted  in  the  Eastern  portions  of  Can- 
terbury. There  appears  to  be  no  precise  information 
as  to  the  early  foundation  of  the  Cathedral  of  Sens, 
and  the  architect  who  designed  it  is  unknown.  The 
west  front  exhibits  a  number  of  fine  sculptures  re- 
lating to  the  lives  of  St.  Stephen,  St.  John,  and  other 
saints;  in  the  central  portion,  which  dates  from  the 
end  of  the  twelfth  century,  religion  has  given  place 
to  the  arts  and  sciences,  which  are  represented  by 
twelve  sculptured  figures,  now  in  a  mutilated  con- 
dition— Grammar,  Medicine  (a  figure  holding 
plants).  Rhetoric  (giving  a  discourse).  Painting 
(represented  drawing  on  a  tablet  placed  on  the 
knee),  Astronomy,  Music,  Philosophy,  &c.  Under 
each  figure  is  sculptured  an  animal  or  monster;  in 
one  case  a  lion  is  devouring  a  child,  an  elephant 
carrying  a  tower.   .   •   .   The  "  encyclopaedic  spirit " 

[  206  ] 


•»,',»>!>» 


SENS 


SENS,  AUXERRE,  AND  TROYES 

was  dominant  in  the  twelfth  century,  and  in  the 
object  lesson  of  these  stones  an  ignorant  and  unlettered 
crowd  could  find  its  elementary  instruction. 

Auxerre,  which  is  about  twelve  miles  from  the 
main  line  between  Paris  and  Dijon,  may  be  con- 
sidered as  an  outpost  lying  on  the  threshold  of  the 
Morvan  country.  Many  of  the  towns  in  this  district, 
notably  Semur  and  Avallon,  are  built  on  large 
granite  bosses  protruding  through  the  oolitic  forma- 
tion. Auxerre  possesses  churches  as  fine  as  those  of 
any  other  city  of  its  size  in  France.  As  one  enters 
the  town  by  the  lower  of  the  two  bridges  which  cross 
the  Yonne,  the  three  churches — St.  Pierre,  St. 
Etienne  and  St.  Germain — suddenly  burst  into  view. 
On  the  left  is  St.  Pierre,  with  its  picturesque  tower 
and  forecourt  entered  through  a  Renaissance  gate- 
way; the  Cathedral  of  St.  Etienne  with  its  single 
tower,  high  nave,  and  girdle  of  flying  buttresses, 
stands  on  the  highest  ground  in  the  centre  of  the 
group;  and  further  eastwards  the  abbey  church  of 
St.  Germain,  detached  from  its  spire,  spreads  out 
along  the  beautiful  river  front  of  the  Yonne. 

"  Towards  the  middle  of  the  tenth  century  the 
Cathedral  of  St.  Etienne  was  complete  in  its  main 
outline;  what  remained  was  the  building  of  the  great 
tower,  and  all  that  various  labour  of  final  decoration 
which  it  would  take  more  than  one  generation  to 

[  207  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

accomplish.  Certain  circumstances,  however,  not 
wholly  explained,  led  to  a  somewhat  rapid  finishing, 
as  it  were  out  of  hand,  yet  with  a  marvellous  fulness 
at  once  and  grace.  Of  the  result  much  has  perished, 
or  been  transferred  elsewhere;  a  portion  is  still  visible 
in  sumptuous  relics,  in  stained  glass  windows,  and, 
above  all,  in  the  reliefs  which  adorn  the  west  portals, 
very  delicately  carved  in  a  fine  firm  stone  from 
Tounerre,  of  which  time  has  only  browned  the  sur- 
face and  which,  for  early  mastery  in  art,  may  be 
compared  to  the  contemporary  work  in  Italy." — 
Walter  Pater,  "  Imaginary  Portraits." 

The  interior  of  the  Cathedral  offers  one  very 
striking  piece  of  architectural  planning:  the  Lady 
Chapel  and  chevet  are  joined  together  by  two  slender 
shafts,  an  arrangement  by  which  the  three  features, 
ambulatory,  chevet  and  Lady  Chapel,  are  united  in 
one  broad  design.  This  conception  gives  a  very 
beautiful  and  harmonious  effect.  The  eleventh- 
century  spire  of  St.  Germain,  which  appears  quite 
detached  from  the  body  of  the  church,  is  one  of  the 
very  early  stone  spires  which  exist  now  in  France. 
It  springs  from  a  fairly  broad  base,  and  has  a  slight 
entasis  or  swelling  to  avoid  the  appearance  of  any 
midway  gathering-in  of  the  outline  of  the  spire.  The 
crypt  of  the  eleventh  century  is  "  deep  sunk  into  the 
ground  and  very  dark,"  having  aisles,  and  is  in  plan 

[  208  ] 


SENS,  AUXERRE,  AND  TROYES 

practically  a  small  edition  of  the  choir  of  Canter- 
bury, following  the  true  Burgundian  type,  the  details 
of  its  capitals  resembling  those  of  the  old  crypt  of 
Nevers.  Mr.  Bond,  referring  to  the  crypt,  or  con- 
fessio  of  St.  Germain,  remarks  that  the  burial  cham- 
ber of  a  martyr  was  called  a  confessio:  "where  lay 
one  who  had  confessed  and  given  witness  to  his  faith 
by  his  blood."  The  term  "  Martyrdom,"  applied  to 
the  north  transept  at  Canterbury,  is  an  exact  equiva- 
lent to  confessio. 

Saint  Germain,  the  missionary  bishop,  lived  here, 
and  died  at  Ravenna;  but  his  body  was  brought  back 
from  Italy  to  his  birthplace  by  five  pious  sisters,  one 
of  whom,  canonised  under  the  name  of  Sainte  Max- 
ime,  lies  buried  in  the  abbey  church  founded  by  the 
great  saint;  where  also,  in  the  beautiful  crypt,  is  the 
tomb  of  Germain  himself,  surrounded  by  a  whole 
company  of  dead  saints,  among  them  the  valiant 
Saint  Loup,  who,  when  bishop  of  Auxerre,  drove  out 
the  Huns  under  Attila,  and  saved  his  city  from  de- 
struction. One  interesting  point  in  connection  with 
this  abbey  is  that  it  is  the  mother-foundation  of  Selby 
in  Yorkshire.  There  is  a  long  and  mythical  legend 
on  the  subject,  teeming  of  course  with  miracles,  from 
which  may  be  gathered  that  one  Bernard  of  Auxerre 
wandered  from  his  native  town  and  settled  down — 
why  is  not  very  clear — upon  the  banks  of  the  river 

[  209  ] 


CATHEDRAL    CITIES    OF   FRANCE 

Ouse,  where  he  led  the  life  of  a  hermit.  The  reports 
of  his  sanctity  attracted  to  his  cell  many  persons  in 
the  neighbourhood,  influential  men  amongst  them; 
and  he  attained  such  fame  that  his  hermit's  hut  be- 
came the  nucleus  of  a  large  monastery.  However 
much  of  this  is  true,  and  however  much  legend, 
enough  remains  to  show  that  the  monks  at  Selby  did 
come  from  Auxerre. 

In  addition  to  these  three  churches,  it  would  be 
impossible  to  overlook  St.  Eusebe,  a  church  stand- 
ing in  the  middle  of  the  town,  especially  if  it  be  the 
traveller's  lot  to  stay  at  the  excellent  Hotel  de  Tfipee, 
and  to  occupy  a  room  giving  on  its  court-yard.  There 
cats,  cooks,  and  chaufifeurs  combine  to  enliven  the 
watches  of  the  night,  and  when  the  morning  dawns, 
and  the  "  web  of  night  undone,"  the  jackdaws  and 
the  bells  of  St.  Eusebe  announce  that  sleep  is  no 
longer  befitting,  and  he  realises  that  a  restless  night 
is  the  price  to  be  cheerfully  paid  if  he  desires, 
as  an  architectural  enthusiast,  to  do  his  duty  by 
Auxerre. 

Troyes,  the  ancient  capital  of  Champagne,  was 
formerly  another  "  city  of  counts  " — the  residence  of 
a  long  line  of  Thibauts,  almost  as  famed  in  their  day 
as  the  Fulks  at  Angers,  and  one  of  whom,  called  "  le 
Chansonnier,"  might  be  compared  to  the  minstrel 
King  Rene.    These  counts  of  Champagne  kept  up 

[  210  ] 


Q 

m 
X 
H 
< 

U 

Q 
< 

O 
Q 

(X] 

H 


SENS,  AUXERRE,  AND  TROYES 

their  state  at  Troyes  until  the  fourteenth  century, 
when  the  countship  became  merged  in  the  French 
crown.  The  city  lilcewise  made  of  itself  a  landmark 
during  the  Hundred  Years'  War.  After  the  battle 
of  Agincourt  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  allied  Bur- 
gundians  and  English ;  and  the  name  of  Troyes  now 
recalls  the  triumph,  as  brief  as  it  was  splendid,  of 
the  English  arms  in  France.  By  this  time  Henry  V. 
had  set  his  foot  upon  the  steps  of  the  French  throne, 
and  the  famous  treaty  signed  here  in  1420  secured 
the  succession  to  him  and  his  heirs,  and,  to  complete 
the  alliance,  gave  him  the  hand  of  the  French 
princess,  Catherine,  the  betrothal  taking  place  in  the 
Cathedral,  and  the  marriage  itself  in  the  church  of 
Saint  Jean.  Here  is  a  contemporary  account  of  the 
proceedings  by  the  chronicler  Monstrelet:  "  At  this 
period  Henry,  King  of  England,  accompanied  by  his 
two  brothers,  the  Dukes  of  Clarence  and  of  Glou- 
cester, the  Earls  of  Huntington,  Warwick,  and  Kyme, 
and  many  of  the  great  lords  of  England,  with  about 
sixteen  hundred  combatants,  the  greater  part  of 
whom  were  archers,  set  out  from  Rouen,  came  to 
Pontoise,  and  then  to  Saint  Denis.  He  crossed  the 
bridge  at  Charenton  and  left  part  of  his  army  to 
guard  it,  and  thence  advanced  by  Provins  to  Troyes 
in  Champagne.  The  Duke  of  Burgundy  and  several 
of  the  nobility,  to  show  him  honour  and  respect,  came 

[  211  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

out  to  meet  him,  and  conducted  him  to  the  hotel, 
where  he  was  lodged  with  his  princes,  and  his  army 
was  quartered  in  the  adjacent  villages.  .  .  .  When 
all  relating  to  the  peace  had  been  concluded,  King 
Henry,  according  to  the  custom  of  France,  affianced 
the  Lady  Catherine.  On  the  morrow  of  Trinity  Day 
the  King  of  England  espoused  her  in  the  parish 
church  near  to  which  he  was  lodged;  great  pomp 
and  magnificence  were  displayed  by  him  and  his 
princes  as  if  he  were  at  that  moment  king  of  all  the 
world." 

Ten  years  later,  however,  Joan  of  Arc  captured 
the  town  on  her  march  through  France,  and  put  an 
end  to  the  English  dominion.  In  1525  Troyes  was 
attacked  by  the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  who  burnt  at 
least  half  the  town,  with  the  result  that  many  of  the 
old  churches  had  to  be  rebuilt,  and  date  therefore 
from  the  sixteenth  century,  with  remains  of  earlier 
work  here  and  there.  Soon  after  the  fire  the  city 
was  overswept  by  the  great  wave  of  religious  con- 
troversy which  was  to  break  over  France  in  the  latter 
years  of  the  century,  and  since  most  of  the  inhabitants 
declared  for  the  Huguenot  cause,  their  fortunes  and 
ultimate  fate  were  none  of  the  happiest.  In  1562 
the  whole  Huguenot  population  was  driven  out  and 
compelled  to  fall  back  for  safety  upon  the  town  of 
Bar-sur-Seine;  and  another  decade  saw  a  repetition 

[  212  ] 


SENS,  AUXERRE,  AND  TROYES 

of  the  terrible  day  of  Saint  Bartholomew,  when  the 
Romanists  in  Troyes  followed  the  ghastly  exam- 
ple of  their  white-sleeved  brothers  in  Paris,  and 
massacred  every  Huguenot  prisoner  within  the 
walls. 

Historic  interest  at  the  present  'day  divides  the 
repute  of  Troyes  with  something  less  romantic — the 
system  of  weights  and  measures  which  we  call  "  Troy 
weight,"  and  which  remains  as  a  memorial  of  the 
mercantile  fame  of  ancient  Troyes.  The  fairs  of 
Troyes  date  back  to  1230,  when  Count  Thibaut  IV. 
granted  to  his  subjects  a  municipal  charter,  and  laid 
the  foundations  of  a  commercial  repute  which  could 
vie  with  that  of  any  town  in  France.  From  this  time 
onwards  Troyes  occupied  an  important  position  in 
the  commercial  world,  and  became  the  resort  of 
wealthy  merchants  from  Italy  and  weavers  with  bales 
of  rich  stuffs  from  Flanders,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
goldsmiths,  silversmiths,  and  workers  in  precious 
stones  who  must  have  brought  Troy  weight  into  fame. 
Neither  the  Hundred  Years'  War  nor  the  wars  of 
the  League  appear  to  have  affected  the  town's  com- 
merce to  any  great  extent,  but  the  Revocation  of  the 
Edict  of  Nantes,  by  forcing  the  Protestant  popula- 
tion, which  included  the  majority  of  the  ablest  citi- 
zens, to  emigrate,  struck  a  blow  at  the  industry  of 
Troyes  from  which  it  never  recovered;  and  now-a- 

[  213  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

days  both  population  and  commerce  have  fallen  to  a 
state  so  low  that  it  might  almost  be  called  one  of 
decay,  compared  with  the  brilliant  busy  life  of  the 
mediaeval  town.  What  a  scene  they  must  have 
afforded  at  fair-time,  these  narrow-built  streets  and 
small  close  squares,  narrower  and  closer  than  ever 
we  can  picture  them  to-day,  but  alive  with  movement, 
laughter,  above  all  with  colour — such  colour  as  your 
sober  work-a-day  crowd  can  never  aspire  to  in  these 
times! 

Picturesque  and  lively  as  a  French  market 
of  to-day  undoubtedly  is,  with  the  red  and  green, 
russet  and  pearl-colour  of  its  vegetables,  the  white 
caps  of  its  women,  the  gay  blues  and  crimsons 
of  the  umbrellas  guarding  the  stalls,  the  laughter  and 
chatter  of  the  buyers,  sellers,  and  idlers,  it  has  nothing 
to  compare  with  the  wonderful  colour-mass  and 
movement  of  a  mediaeval  crowd,  above  all  in  such  a 
place  as  this,  the  fame  of  whose  fairs  might  well 
have  attracted  buyers  from  all  parts  of  Europe. 
Stately,  bearded  Italian  merchants — men  like  An- 
tonio of  Venice  with  argosies  on  every  sea — in  furred 
cap  and  gold  chain,  dark-faced,  keen-eyed  Jews, 
young  nobles,  exquisite  in  silk  and  velvet,  wandering 
minstrels  fantastically  arrayed,  dancing-girls  like 
bright-hued  butterflies,  all  the  good  citizens  of 
Troyes  in  their  gayest  holiday  attire,  and  the  inevi- 

[  214  ] 


A  STREET  IN  TROVES 


•   S    f  •  «   c 


SENS,  AUXERRE,  AND  TROYES 

table  jester  in  his  motley,  skimming  in  and  out  of  the 
crowd,  shaking  his  cap  and  bells  in  every  face — the 
many-coloured  banners  of  the  town  guilds  streaming 
in  the  breeze  above  their  heads,  and  the  summer  sun- 
shine flooding  the  whole  scene,  giving  added  light  to 
every  street-corner,  added  brilliancy  to  every  hue. 
The  Troyes  of  to-day  is  a  picturesque  town  enough, 
with  many  beautiful  timber-framed  houses;  but  the 
light  and  life  of  the  town  went  out  with  the  depart- 
ure of  the  fairs,  and  beyond  its  churches  Troyes  now 
has  little  to  distinguish  it  from  the  hundreds  of 
quondam-mediaeval  towns  scattered  through  the 
length  and  breadth  of  France. 

On  our  architectural  pilgrimage  through  the 
town  the  Cathedral  naturally  claimed  our  first 
attention;  but  we  had  not  got  much  further  than 
admiration  of  the  splendour  of  the  stained  glass,  and 
a  short  analysis  of  the  beauty  of  the  interior,  when  a 
remorseless  sacristan  informed  us  that  the  Cathedral 
was  about  to  close  for  two  hours.  Driven  outside, 
the  contemplation  of  the  splendid  Flamboyant  west 
portal  reminded  us  of  what  we  have  referred  to  else- 
where— that  these  deep-set  porches  in  the  French 
cathedrals  are  considered  as  lineal  descendants  of 
the  ancient  narthex.  Troyes,  Laon,  Bourges  and 
many  other  churches  lead  one  to  an  attempt  to  follow 
out  the  evolution  of  these  great  porches.    In  the  an- 

[215] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

cient  basilican  churches  the  narthex  was  the  jSrst 
section  of  the  building — an  ante-temple,  long  and 
narrow,  in  front  of  the  nave.  In  the  primitive 
Church  it  was  especially  allotted  to  the  monks  and 
the  women,  and  used  for  certain  offices,  such  as  roga- 
tions, supplications,  and  night  watches ;  it  was  further 
destined  as  a  place  for  catechumens  and  penitents, 
who  were  permitted  to  assist  at  Divine  Service  out- 
side the  Temple.  Heretics  and  schismatics  might 
also  here  attend  and  listen  to  the  reading  of  the 
Scriptures,  this  privilege  being  accorded  them  in  the 
hope  of  their  ultimate  conversion;  and  corpses  were 
placed  in  the  narthex  during  the  performance  of  the 
funeral  rites.  In  the  Middle  Ages  the  denomination 
narthex  was  given  to  closed  porches  of  churches,  and 
ceased  to  be  any  longer  applicable  to  a  portion  of  a 
religious  edifice  lying  within  the  walls.  It  was  ulti- 
mately replaced  by  the  word  porch.  These  porches 
were  both  open  and  closed  and  formed  a  kind  of 
vestibule. 

The  baptism  of  children  and  not  of  adults  rendered 
it  unnecessary  to  provide  for  the  preparation  of  con- 
verts before  being  introduced  into  the  Church. 
There  were  no  more  catechumens  undergoing  their 
time  of  probation,  and  in  consequence  the  spacious 
vestibule  to  which  they  had  hitherto  been  relegated 
disappeared  as  an  essential  portion  of  a  large  church, 

[  216  ] 


SENS,  AUXERRE,  AND  TROYES 

and  was  replaced  by  a  porch  which  was  either  open 
or  closed,  and  occupied  a  position  in  front  of  the 
nave  similar  to  that  in  which  its  predecessor,  the 
narthex,  had  stood.  These  porches  being  reserved 
for  the  faithful  remained,  qua  porches,  as  very  im- 
portant annexes  to  the  churches,  and  formed  large 
vestibules,  often  closed,  which  ran  along  the  outside 
of  the  western  wall  of  a  church,  having  sometimes 
the  appearance  of  a  cloister,  as  at  Toury,  which  was 
built  in  1230. 

Under  the  porches  before  the  main  entrances  of 
many  ancient  cathedrals  bishops,  emperors  and 
honoured  citizens  were  often  buried,  as  the  eccle- 
siastical law  in  the  primitive  Church  did  not  allow 
people  to  be  buried  inside  the  walls  of  the  sacred 
building.  Many  important  services  were  held  under 
these  porches;  prayers  for  the  dead  were  offered  up, 
ablutions  performed  by  the  faithful  before  entering 
the  church,  relics  and  images  were  exposed,  and  lita- 
nies chanted.  Later  it  became  absolutely  necessary 
to  keep  them  strictly  closed  on  account  of  the  abuse 
of  the  shelter  of  the  porch  by  the  erection  of  market 
stalls  and  booths  on  fair-days  under  the  shadow  of 
the  church,  and  the  crowd  of  buyers  and  sellers 
making  the  air  ring  with  their  noisy  bargainings. 

A  further  development  was  to  make  the  porch  a 
kind  of  arcaded  avant-porte  surmounted  by  a  gable 

L  217  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

with  sculptured  features.  These  decorated  canopies 
were  by  degrees  thrown  back  into  the  main  wall,  be- 
came merged  into  the  mouldings  of  the  doorway,  and 
were  finally  lost  as  a  separate  feature  in  the  highly 
ornamented  and  deeply  splayed  portal. 

Fortunately  the  ecclesiastical  interest  of  Troyes  is 
not  confined  to  one  corner,  and  the  churches  of  Saint 
Urbain  and  the  Madeleine  lie  in  one's  path  to  the 
market-place  along  the  very  picturesque  streets  of 
sixteenth-  and  seventeenth-century  houses,  which 
oflfer  every  conceivable  variation  of  roof  and 
gable. 

The  beautiful  details  of  the  unfinished  church  of 
Saint  Urbain  may  well  have  won  for  itself  the  repu- 
tation of  equalling  if  not  of  surpassing  anything  of 
its  kind  either  in  France  or  Germany;  and  although 
it  is  still  in  the  hands  of  the  restorer,  there  is  now  no 
scaffolding  to  prevent  one  looking  in  admiration  at 
the  graceful  choir  and  transepts.  The  detached 
pignons  above  the  chancel  window  spring  from  the 
buttresses  clear  of  the  wall,  and  throw  a  deep  shadow 
over  the  upper  portion  of  the  windows.  This  shadow 
gives  an  appearance  of  weight  and  stability  to  the 
building,  which  is  certainly  required  as  an  assurance 
against  the  result  of  too  daring  construction. 

In  the  Madeleine,  which  is  not  far  from  Saint 
Urbain,  is  a  notable  rood-screen,  full  of  luxuriant 

[  218  ] 


SENS,  AUXERRE,  AND  TROYES 

tracery  and  sculpture  of  a  late  Flamboyant  period. 
It  attracts  attention,  not  because  it  fulfils  any  cere- 
monial requirements  or  forms  any  part  of  an 
architectural  effect  in  the  interior  of  the  church,  but 
rather  on  account  of  its  singular  appearance  of  being 
slung  between  two  pillars. 


[  219  ] 


MEAUX,   SENLIS.  AND   BEAUVAIS 


CD 


EAUX  is  a  beautifully  situated  little  town 
on  the  banks  of  the  Marne  some  thirty 
miles  from  Paris,  on  the  way  to  the 
Champagne  country.  Its  general  appear- 
ance can  best  be  gathered  from  the  delightful  public 
promenade  along  the  river-side  which  is  entered  im- 
mediately on  the  right  of  the  station.  The  Cathedral 
'dates  back  to  the  early  thirteenth  century,  but  very 
shortly  after  it  was  finished,  either  owing  to  the  work 
of  construction  being  hurried  or  to  the  foundations 
being  insecure,  large  cracks  and  actual  shifting  of 
the  masonry  declared  themselves,  and  a  great  deal  of 
remodelling  and  -alterations  became  necessary.  The 
vaulting  and  first  stage  of  the  choir  aisles — or 
triforium  ambulatory — ^were  removed,  the  aisles 
being  thereby  doubled  in  height.  The  choir  eleva- 
tion is  a  very  beautiful  expression  of  thirteenth- 
century  design.  The  transept  is  short,  and  has  a 
large  rose  window  and  a  richly-decorated  portal. 

[  220  ] 


MEAUX,    SENLIS,   AND    BEAUVAIS 

It  is  said  that  at  one  time,  namely  in  the 
thirteenth  century,  architects  conceived  the  idea  of 
covering  the  walls  on  the  inside  of  the  porch  with 
some  vast  design  of  decoration,  by  which  the  colour 
poured  into  the  church  through  the  large  rose-win- 
dow should  be  enhanced  by  great  spaces  of  painted 
wall-surface.  This  conception,  however,  was  very 
short-lived,  and  towards  the  end  of  the  century 
painted  subjects  were  confined  almost  entirely  to  the 
windows;  and  the  internal  decoration  of  the  revers 
of  the  porches  was  conceived,  as  at  Meaux,  more  in 
an  architectural  spirit  with  pilasters,  arcading,  etc., 
as  motives,  rather  than  with  features  suggested  by 
the  painter's  art. 

Meaux  as  well  as  Laon,  Soissons,  Beauvais, 
Noyon  and  other  towns  in  the  district  felt  the  effects 
of  the  Jacquerie  revolts  in  the  thirteenth  century. 
Indeed,  many  of  the  ladies  who  suffered  from  the 
horrors  of  the  persecution  at  Beauvais  fled  at  first  to 
Meaux  to  escape  the  fury  of  the  rebels;  and  once 
having  got  within  the  town,  they  did  not  dare  to  leave 
it,  so  that  to  all  intents  and  purposes  they  were  pris- 
oners within  its  walls.  Throughout  the  whole  dis- 
trict bands  of  robbers  and  furious  peasants  infested 
the  roads  or  lay  in  ambush  to  catch  the  unwary,  and 
it  was  thus  very  dangerous  to  go  from  one  town  to 
another,  even  under  an  armed  escort.     Hearing  of 

[    221    ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

the  plight  of  these  ladies  in  Meaux,  among  whom 
were  the  Duchesses  of  Orleans  and  Normandy,  the 
Earl  t)f  Foix  and  the  Captal  de  Buch  resolved  to 
go  to  their  aid,  and  set  out  forthwith  from  Chalons, 
to  find  a  great  host  of  the  peasantry  also  bound  for 
the  same  place.  The  rebels  had  heard  that  Meaux 
was  chiefly  inhabited  by  refugee  women  and 
children,  also  that  it  contained  a  great  deal  of  treas- 
ure; and  they  were  now  flocking  down  every  road, 
from  Valois,  from  Beauvoisie  and  from  Paris, 
towards  the  little  town  upon  the  Marne.  Foix  and 
his  company  were  received  with  the  utmost  joy,  for 
the  peasants  had  already  begun  to  fill  the  streets  and 
to  do  what  damage  they  could,  and  the  ladies  were 
naturally  in  great  alarm.  "  But  when  these  banditti 
perceived  such  a  troop  of  gentlemen,  so  well 
equipped,  sally  forth  to  guard  the  market-place,  the 
foremost  of  them  began  to  fall  back.  The  gentle- 
men then  followed  them,  using  their  lances  and 
swords.  When  they  felt  the  weight  of  their  blows, 
they,  through  fear,  turned  about  so  fast,  they  fell  one 
over  the  other.  All  manner  of  armed  persons  then 
rushed  out  of  the  barriers,  drove  them  before  them, 
striking  them  down  like  beasts,  and  clearing  the  town 
of  them,  for  they  kept  neither  regularity  nor  order, 
slaying  so  many  that  they  were  tired.  They  flung 
them  in  great  heaps  into  the  river.    In  short,  they 

[   222   ] 


>  >  »     >  > 

>  »  > '    »  > 
1     ,  »  ,>  » 

)    J  »  3  » 


MEAUX,   SENLIS,   AND   BEAUVAIS 

killed  upwards  of  seven  thousand.  Not  one  would 
have  escaped  if  they  had  chosen  to  pursue  them 
further." 

Another  siege  famous  in  the  annals  of  Meaux  is 
that  during  the  wars  of  Henry  V.,  when  the  English 
king  encamped  before  the  town  in  October,  142 1,  and 
set  engines  to  batter  down  the  gates  and  walls,  having 
entrenched  his  own  army  meanwhile  in  a  strong  posi- 
tion between  hedges  and  ditches.  "The  King  of 
England,"  Monstrelet  tells  us,  "was  indefatigable 
in  the  siege  of  Meaux,  and  having  destroyed  many 
parts  of  the  walls  of  the  market-place,  he  summoned 
the  garrison  to  surrender  themselves  to  the  King  of 
France  and  himself,  or  he  would  storm  the  place. 
To  this  summons  they  replied  that  it  was  not  yet  time 
to  surrender,  on  which  the  King  ordered  the  place  to 
be  stormed.  The  assault  continued  for  seven  or  eight 
hours  in  the  most  bloody  manner;  nevertheless,  the 
besieged  made  an  obstinate  defence,  in  spite  of  the 
great  numbers  that  were  attacking  them.  Their 
lances  had  been  almost  all  broken,  but  in  their  stead 
they  made  use  of  spits,  and  fought  with  such  courage 
that  the  English  were  driven  back  from  the  ditches, 
which  encouraged  them  much."  This  state  of  affairs 
lasted  for  six  months;  the  garrison  of  Meaux,  who 
seem  to  have  behaved  all  through  with  the  utmost 
gallantry,  were  in  hopes  of  relief  from  the  Dauphin, 

[  223  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

but  at  the  end  of  April,  finding  further  resistance 
impossible,  they  gave  themselves  up  into  the  hands 
of  Henry.  A  treaty  was  set  on  foot  whereby,  "  on 
the  I  ith  day  of  May,  the  market-place  and  all  Meaux 
were  to  be  surrendered  into  the  hands  of  the  kings  of 
France  and  England."  The  leaders  were  made  pris- 
oners of  war,  and  the  chief  offender,  the  bastard  of 
Vaurus,  who  "  had  in  his  time  hung  many  a  Bur- 
gundian  and  Englishman,"  was  beheaded  and  hung 
as  a  warning  on  a  tree  outside  the  walls  of  the  town. 
King  Henry  himself — adds  the  French  chronicler — 
"  was  very  proud  of  this  victory,  and  entered  the  place 
in  great  pomp,  and  remained  there  some  days  with 
his  princes  to  repose  and  solace  himself,  having  given 
orders  for  the  complete  reparation  of  the  walls  that 
had  been  so  much  damaged  by  artillery  at  the  siege." 

Meaux  is  of  course  notably  associated  with  Bos- 
suet,  the  famous  preacher,  who  was  appointed  to  its 
bishopric  in  1681.  The  study  and  garden  where  he 
wrote  many  of  his  sermons  are  still  shown  among  his 
other  memorials  in  the  fiveche,  near  the  Cathedral. 

"  Dans  les  choses  necessaire,  Tunite ;  dans  les 
douteuses,  la  liberte;  dans  tous  les  cas,  la  charite." 
In  these  few  words  one  may  look  for  the  keynote  of 
Bossuet's  whole  life.  Temperate  in  all  things,  yet 
possessed  with  an  eloquence  more  moving,  it  was 
said,  than  that  of  any  man  since  the  days  of  the 

[  224  ] 


•        •   1  • 


>      >    >  J 


inn   ULD   xMiLLS   AT   MEAUX 


MEAUX,    SENLIS,   AND    BEAUVAIS 

Christian  Fathers,  and  employed  always  in  the  cause 
of  the  Church  he  loved  so  well,  the  ".Aigle  de 
Meaux  "  well  deserves  his  place  among  the  greatest 
ecclesiastics  France  has  ever  known,  and  France,  just 
at  this  time,  was  rich  in  ecclesiastical  genius.  There 
was  Fenelon  at  Cambrai  and  Mascaron  at  Tulle, 
there  were  Massillon  and  Bourdaloue,  Arnauld  and 
Fleury — all  of  them  men  of  note,  both  in  the  pulpit 
and  in  the  world  of  books;  but  Bossuet  stands  out 
before  them  all. 

He  made  an  early  entrance  into  the  cultivated 
world,  preaching  his  first  sermonr,  upon  a  subject 
chosen  at  random,  in  the  salon  of  the  Hotel  Ram- 
bouillet,  when  hardly  out  of  his  teens;  and  the  Mar- 
quis de  Feuquieres,  who  had  introduced  him  into 
this  society  of  Precieuses,  soon  found  reason  to  be 
proud  of  his  protege.  The  young  man  was  destined 
to  go  on  as  he  had  begun ;  a  few  more  years  saw  him 
established  as  Canon  of  Metz,  the  close  friend  of 
Conde  and  of  the  Calvinist  Paul  Ferri,  with  whom 
he  never  tired  of  disputing  theological  questions  in 
a  perfectly  amicable  spirit,  acting  up  to  his  maxim 
of  "  liberty  in  doubtful  things " ;  and  finally  his 
reputation  brought  him  to  Paris,  where  he  preached 
during  Lent,  1656,  and  brought  before  the  world  the 
sermon  as  he  created  it,  purified  from  the  profanities 
of  an  immoral  age,  strengthened  by  his  steadfast  sim- 

[  225  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

plicity,  and  quickened  by  the  fire  of  his  eloquence. 
Bossuet  found  that  in  spite  of  himself  his  fame  as  an 
orator — a  fame  after  which  he  had  never  striven — 
was  firmly  established  in  the  capital,  and  after  he  had 
preached  before  the  king  in  the  chapel  of  the  Louvre 
his  success  was  practically  assured.  Honours  and 
dignities  came  fast  upon  him;  he  became  Bishop  of 
Condom,  and  in  the  following  year  (1670)  was  en- 
trusted with  the  education  of  the  Dauphin,  while  the 
Academic  Frangaise  opened  its  doors  to  his  genius, 
and  in  1681  he  was  appointed  to  the  See  of  Meaux, 
Hardly  had  Bossuet  settled  down,  however,  in  the 
quiet  little  eveche,  with  its  pleasant  green  garden, 
than  he  was  called  out  again  into  the  world  of  noise 
and  controversy.  In  1682  Louis  XIV.  convoked  the 
famous  assembly  of  clergy  to  discuss  the  breach  which 
had  lately  disclosed  itself  between  the  State  of  France 
and  the  Papacy.  The  king  contended  for  the  right 
of  patronage  over  any  vacant  sees  or  benefices,  claim- 
ing that  so  long  as  they  remained  unoccupied,  their 
revenues  fell  due  to  the  Crown;  and  called  together 
the  clergy  of  the  realm  to  uphold  his  right  and  to 
draw  up  a  code  of  rules  that  should  set  a  line  be- 
tween spiritual  and  temporal  authority.  Bossuet 
preached  the  sermon  which  was  to  open  the  Convo- 
cation; and  his  clear  practical  sense  and  eloquent 
denunciation  of  the  encroachments  of  the  Papacy 

[  226  ] 


MEAUX,   SENLIS,   AND   BEAUVAIS 

destroyed  the  remnants  of  Pope  Innocent's  power  in 
France.  He  summed  up  the  case  in  four  clauses. 
First,  "  That  the  Pope  has  no  temporal  power  over 
kings";  secondly,  "That  his  spiritual  authority  is 
inferior  to  that  of  a  general  assembly";  thirdly, 
"  That,  in  consequence,  the  use  of  this  authority  ought 
to  be  regulated  by  the  canons  of  the  Church  and  by 
customs  generally  approved";  and  last,  "That  the 
papal  decision  on  matters  of  faith  is  only  infallible 
by  consent  of  the  Church."  Thus  did  Bossuet  estab- 
lish the  privileges  and  the  liberty  of  the  Galilean 
Church. 

As  soon  as  possible  the  great  bishop  disengaged 
himself  from  the  affairs  of  the  nation,  and  was  occu- 
pied, not  in  gaining  fresh  honours,  but  with  the  care 
of  his  diocese.  The  picture  of  his  last  years  is  a 
graceful  and  pleasant  one,  and  shows  the  great  man 
leading  the  life  of  a  simple  country  priest;  writing 
sermons  in  his  study  or  garden,  directing  his  con- 
vents, schools  and  hospitals,  visiting  his  poor  and  sick 
people,  even  catechising  the  children  of  Meaux;  and 
at  times  retiring  into  the  seclusion  of  the  monastery 
of  La  Trappe,  to  gather  strength  and  courage  for  the 
better  fulfilment  of  his  pastoral  duties. 

The  old  timber  water-mills  behind  the  Towoi  Hall 
are  the  outward  sign  of  one  of  the  great  industries  of 
Meaux.    They  have  withstood  for  many  generations 

[  227  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

the  rushing  torrents  of  the  Marne,  which  threaten  to 
undermine  the  starlings  and  timbers  of  the  mills  and 
to  engulf  them  in  its  waters.  These  for  some  reason 
or  other  are  almost  as  green  as  the  outpourings  of  the 
Rhone  at  Geneva.  It  would  be  interesting  to  know 
if  Meaux  possessed  any  feudal  right  over  the  neigh- 
bouring peasants,  compelling  them  to  come  and  wait 
their  turn  at  the  mill,  and  pay  whatever  price  might 
be  demanded,  and  forbidding  them,  even  in  times  of 
heavy  yield,  to  get  their  corn  ground  elsewhere.  Such 
oppressions  actually  existed  in  the  villages  attached 
to  the  great  chateaux,  where  the  seigneur  had  a  right 
to  keep  huge  rabbit-warrens  and  pigeon-houses, 
whose  inhabitants  devastated,  year  in,  year  out,  the 
surrounding  crops  of  the  peasants. 

The  little  city  of  Senlis,  with  its  girdle  of  Roman 
walls  and  watch  towers,  is  one  of  the  most  attractive 
places  within  reach  of  Paris.  It  is  situated  about 
thirty-five  miles  to  the  northeast,  in  the  midst  of  the 
great  forest  land  of  Hallatte  and  Chantilly.  Until 
the  dissolution  of  the  Carlovingian  empire  Senlis  en- 
joyed the  privileges  of  a  royal  residence,  and,  indeed, 
down  to  the  time  of  Henri  de  Navarre  the  kings  of 
France  continued  to  visit  the  city,  and  were  lodged 
in  a  castle  built  on  the  site  of  the  Roman  praetorium. 
The  ruins  of  this  castle,  some  of  which  date  from  the 
eleventh  century,  may  still  be  seen  among  the  attrac- 

[  228  ] 


MEAUX,   SENLIS,   AND   BEAUVAIS 

tions  of  Senlis;  and  of  even  greater  interest  are  the 
Roman  ramparts  which  surround  the  town  and  which 
were  built  when  it  still  held  its  position  as  the  town- 
ship of  the  Silvanectes.  These  walls,  "  twenty-three 
feet  high  and  thirteen  feet  thick,  are,  with  those  of 
St.  Lizier  (Ariege)  and  Bourges,  the  most  perfect 
in  France.  They  enclosed  an  oval  area  1024  feet 
long  from  east  to  west  and  794  feet  wide  from  north 
to  south.  At  each  of  the  angles  formed  by  the  broken 
lines  of  which  the  circuit  of  2756  feet  is  composed, 
stands  or  stood  a  tower;  numbering  originally  twenty- 
eight  and  now  only  sixteen,  they  are  semicircular  in 
plan,  and  up  to  the  height  of  the  wall  are  unpierced. 
The  Roman  city  had  only  two  gates ;  the  present  num- 
ber is  five." 

As  one  approaches  the  town  from  the  station 
through  the  boulevard,  the  Renaissance  tower  of 
Saint  Pierre  and  the  beautiful  fleche  of  the  Cathe- 
dral stand  right  ahead.  The  first  of  these  two 
churches  is  now  desecrated  and  converted  into  a  large 
market  hall,  having  previously  been  used  as  cavalry 
barracks.  It  is  short  and  broad,  having  only  three 
bays  to  the  nave,  two  to  the  choir,  and  an  apse  of 
three  lights;  but  it  has  one  very  marked  feature, 
which  is  also  seen,  though  to  a  lesser  extent,  in  the 
Cathedral  of  Saint  Gatien  at  Tours — the  axis  of  the 
choir  trends  northwards,  making  with  the  nave  an 

[  229  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

angle  of  some  seventeen  to  twenty  degrees.  There  is 
a  certain  amount  of  early  Gothic  work  worth  notice, 
but  the  prevailing  style  is  Flamboyant;  in  the  two  last 
side  chapels  of  the  choir  some  curious  vaulting  is  to 
be  found,  resembling  rude  attempts  at  fan  tracery 
with  heavy  keyed  pendants. 

The  Cathedral  of  Notre-Dame  covers  during  its 
construction  a  period  of  some  four  hundred  years, 
and  is  probably  only  part  of  what  was  originally  de- 
signed. The  glory  of  the  building  is  the  beautiful 
spire  to  the  south-west  tower.  Rising  from  a  base 
octagonal  in  plan,  the  angles  are  lightened  by  de- 
tached pillars  supporting  a  pyramidal  canopy;  the 
upper  dormer  windows  are  high  and  lancet-shaped, 
with  the  back  of  their  gables  sloping  downwards  and 
forming  a  sharp  angle  with  the  richly  crocketed  spire. 
Internally  the  church  is  a  mixed  product  of  the 
Transition  and  Flamboyant  architects;  the  large 
clerestory  windows  may  have  been  rebuilt  later  when 
the  vaulting  was  constructed.  In  the  ambulatory 
behind  the  altar  the  twelfth-century  capitals  remain, 
showing  archaic  Romanesque  sculpture;  and  traces 
of  this  early  work  are  to  be  found  in  many  other  parts 
of  the  building.  The  large  west  door  is  of  the  Char- 
tres  type;  in  the  tympanum  are  the  figures  of  our 
Lord  and  the  Virgin  Mary,  with  a  representation  of 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead;  some  of  the  figures  are 

[  230  ] 


,      1      «    >      * 


SENLIS 


MEAUX,    SENLIS,   AND   BEAUVAIS 

flying   upwards,  while   others    are   being   tenderly 
awakened  by  angels  swinging  censers. 

Long  before  the  train  arrives  at  Beauvais  the 
Cathedral  is  seen  like  a  huge  fortress  in  the  distance, 
overtopping  the  quiet,  modest  landscape  of  the  The- 
rain  valley;  and  its  great  size  is  more  acutely  felt  as 
one  approaches  its  south  doorway  along  the  streets  of 
little  white-painted  houses  and  shop-fronts.  The 
immediate  effect  of  the  interior  of  this  marvellous 
building  is  startling.  Whatever  emotion  has  been 
aroused  in  the  architectural  traveller  by  the  glories 
of  Amiens,  Chartres,  or  Bourges,  is  for  the  moment 
entirely  eclipsed  by  the  first  view  of  the  choir  of 
Beauvais,  whose  clerestory  windows  soar  upwards 
with  such  a  restless  vitality  as  almost  to  pierce  the 
vaulting.  These  choir  bays  look  like  shafts  of 
masonry  so  elongated,  so  delicate,  that  one  trembles 
for  their  stability.  And  this  sensation  gradually  in- 
creases. The  sense  of  strength  and  repose  gives  way 
to  a  feeling  that  this  great  "church  in  the  air"  is 
struggling  against  dissolution,  and  that  its  vast  flying 
buttresses  are  only  just  sufficient  to  withstand  the 
tremendous  strain  that  is  constantly  being  exerted  on 
the  building.  It  is  only  fair,  however,  to  the  architect 
of  Beauvais  choir  to  say  that  he  was  hampered  by 
the  want  of  means  and  probably  also  by  the  insuffi- 
cient site  assigned  to  him  for  the  planning  out  of  his 

[  231  ] 


CATHEDRAL    CITIES    OF   FRANCE 

Cathedral.  Had  he  worked  under  more  favourable 
conditions  he  would  have  accomplished  "  an  incom- 
parable work,"  for  it  is  not,  as  Viollet-le-Duc 
remarks,  "  the  theory  '^  that  was  fatal  to  its  construc- 
tion, but  the  execution,  which  is  poor  and  mediocre. 
The  lesson  learnt  from  the  Beauvais  architect's 
temerity  on  the  one  hand,  and  from  his  beautiful  dis- 
position of  plan  on  the  other,  was  of  the  greatest 
value  to  the  designers  of  other  Cathedrals  executed 
at  the  same  time — notably  that  of  Cologne,  which  was 
constructed  more  or  less  contemporaneously  with 
Beauvais. 

West  of  the  Cathedral  is  the  Basse  CEuvre^  a 
building  which  Fergusson  describes  as  an  example 
of  the  Latin  style,  and  a  stepping-stone  from  the 
Roman  basilica  to  the  Gothic  church.  This  interme- 
diate style  is  noticeable  in  the  Romanesque  church 
of  S.  Vicenzo  alle  Fontane  in  Rome,  where  the  bay 
is  divided  simply  into  pier  arch  and  clerestory,  show- 
ing in  very  simple  terms  an  arrangement  nearly 
approaching  to  Gothic. 

Of  the  history  of  Beauvais  there  is  but  little  to  be 
said,  for  it  possesses  none  worthy  of  the  name,  or 
rather — since  every  town  must  have  a  story  of  some 
kind — none  which  associates  itself  to  any  great  degree 
with  outside  events.  It  was  established  in  the  Roman 
era  as  the  capital  of  the  Bellovaci,  under  the  name 

[  232  ] 


MEAUX,    SENLIS,   AND    BEAUVAIS 

of  Caesaromagus;  it  was  Christianised  by  Saint  Lu- 
cian,  who  for  his  good  works  suffered  martyrdom 
within  the  town ;  and  later  on  it  became  the  head  of 
a  countship.  This  dignity,  however,  Beauvais  did 
not  long  retain,  for  in  the  tenth  century  the  temporal 
power  of  the  count  was  vested  in  the  spiritul  power 
of  the  bishop,  and  any  celebrity  which  the  town  may 
have  attained  was  henceforth  of  purely  ecclesiastical 
order. 

It  did,  however,  play  a  prominent  part  in  the 
peasant  revolt  known  as  the  "  Jacquerie  '*  in  the  four- 
teenth century.  A  body  of  peasants,  "  without  any 
leader,"  says  Froissart,  rose  up  with  the  intent  to 
exterminate  the  upper  classes — a  forerunner  of  the 
Revolution — and  perpetrated  the  most  horrible  atro- 
cities upon  every  knight  and  noble  they  could  lay 
hands  on  in  Beauvais.  "  They  said  that  the  nobles 
of  the  kingdom  of  France,  knights  and  squires,  were 
a  disgrace  to  it,  and  that  it  would  be  a  very  meritori- 
ous act  to  destroy  them  all ;  to  which  proposition  every 
one  assented  as  a  truth,  and  added,  shame  befall  him 
who  should  be  the  means  of  preventing  the  gentlemen 
from  being  wholly  destroyed." 

When  the  revolt  grew,  instead  of  being  crushed, 
the  "  gentlemen  of  Beauvoisie  "  were  forced  to  send 
for  help  out  of  France,  since  matters  were  come  to 
such  a  pass  that  '^  in  the  bishoprics  of  Noyon,  Laon 

[  233  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

and  Soissons,  there  were  upwards  of  one  hundred 
castles  and  good  houses  of  knights  and  squires  de- 
stroyed." Aid  soon  came,  notably  from  Flanders, 
Hainault  and  Navarre,  the  king,  of  Navarre  espe- 
cially signalising  himself  by  putting  three  thousand 
rebels  to  death  in  one  day.  "  When  they  were  asked," 
says  the  chronicler,  "  for  what  reason  they  acted  so 
wickedly,  they  replied  they  knew  not,  but  they  did 
so  because  they  saw  others  do  it;  and  they  thought 
that  by  this  means  they  should  destroy  all  the  nobles 
and  gentlemen  in  the  world." 

Edward  III.  besieged  Beauvais  in  1346,  but  with- 
out success,  and  it  only  fell  into  English  hands  in 
1420  through  the  treachery  of  Bishop  Pierre 
Cauchon,  whose  name  also  appears  as  one  of  the 
witnesses  against  Joan  of  Arc  at  Rouen  eleven  years 
later.  The  memory  of  this  latter  ofifence  so  preyed 
upon  his  mind  that  when  he  became  bishop  of  Lisieux 
— having  presumably  been  ejected  from  the  see  of 
Beauvais — Couchon  sought  to  expiate  his  sin  by  dedi- 
cating a  chapel  to  the  Virgin  in  the  Cathedral  of 
Saint  Pierre, 

Hearing  of  the  siege  of  Compiegne  by  the  Bur- 
gundian  forces,  Joan  had  left  Charles's  army,  whicK 
was  still  dawdling  by  the  Loire  in  a  state  of  inaction, 
and  marched  ofif  to  Compiegne  to  relieve  his  party 
there.    Arrived  without  the  town,  she  soon  headed 

[  234  ] 


MEAUX,    SENLIS,   AND    BEAUVAIS 

a  sortie  against  the  Burgundians;  they  were  driven 
back,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  expedition  would 
have  been  attended  by  the  success  which,  to  do  her 
justice,  had  up  to  this  moment  crowned  the  efforts  of 
the  Maid,  had  not  a  body  of  Englishmen  come  up 
unexpectedly  between  her  and  the  town  and  driven 
her  into  a  corner.  She  was  of  course  speedily  cap- 
tured. As  soon  as  the  news  reached  Paris  both  the 
University  and  the  Vicar  of  the  Inquisition  demanded 
her  person.  Cauchon,  however,  stood  firm.  The 
Maid,  he  contended,  had  been  captured  within  the 
diocese  of  Beauvais,  and  he,  as  the  foremost  prelate 
of  the  English  party,  claimed  the  right  of  putting  her 
on  trial;  and  after  having  paid  to  Burgundy  10,000 
livres  for  this  right,  sent  the  Maid  to  Rouen,  there 
to  stand  on  her  trial  for  sorcery,  before  a  court  of 
which  Cauchon  was  president;  and  this  fact  alone 
might  reasonably  destroy  all  hope  for  poor  Joan. 

Another  fourteenth-century  bishop  of  Beauvais 
brought  his  diocese  before  the  world  in  no  small  de- 
gree. Jean  de  Dormans  was  not  only  bishop;  he 
became  Chancellor  of  France,  and  obtained  from 
Rome  the  rank  of  a  cardinal,  under  the  title  of  the 
Four  Crowned  Saints.  In  Paris  Dormans  endowed  a 
foundation  which  still  bears  the  name  of  College 
de  Beauvais,  though  what  remains  of  the  building 
serves  as  barracks,  and  the  light  of  learning  has  left 

[  235  ] 


CATHEDRAL    CITIES    OF    FRANCE 

its  precincts  for  ever.  The  old  college  is  now  united 
to  its  neighbour,  the  College  de  Presle ;  but  the  four- 
teenth-century chapel  dedicated  to  Saint  John  the 
Evangelist  still  stands  almost  intact,  though  it,  too, 
has  been  desecrated,  and  now  serves  the  use  of  the 
military  occupiers.  Formerly  there  stood  within  this 
chapel  six  life-size  figures,  representing  three  men 
and  three  women  of  the  Dormans  family,  and  it  is 
believed  that  when  mediaeval  fragments  were  pieced 
together  to  form  the  chapel  of  Abelard  and  Heloise, 
which  is  now  part  of  the  burial-ground  of  Pere-la- 
Chaise,  the  figure  of  one  of  these  ladies  of  the  four- 
teenth century  was  used  to  represent  that  of  Heloise. 
One  name  there  is  on  the  page  of  their  history 
which  the  inhabitants  of  this  town  remember  with  a 
veneration  almost  equal  to  that  which  the  Orleannais 
regard  Joan  of  Arc,  and  whose  memory  even  now 
receives  an  annual  tribute.  It  is  that  of  another 
Jeanne,  poor  and  obscure,  who  rose  to  heroism  in  the 
moment  of  her  city's  danger,  and  who,  though  she 
did  not  lead  a  mighty  host  to  victory  nor  bring  a 
monarch  back  to  his  own,  yet  saved  her  city  from  the 
encroachments  of  Burgundy,  and  gave  the  women  of 
Beauvais  a  right  to  their  country's  esteem.  The  be- 
seiging  army  of  Charles  the  Bold  probably  never 
received  such  a  surprise  as  on  that  day  in  the  year  of 
grace  1472,  when  Jeanne  Hachette  led  her  conct- 

l  236  ] 


MEAUX,   SENLIS,   AND    BEAUVAIS 

ioyennes  through  the  streets  of  Beauvais,  menaced  the 
foe  from  the  ramparts,  and  actually  bore  away  with 
her  own  hands  one  of  the  Burgundian  standards.  The 
banner  is  still  kept  in  the  H6tel-de-Ville;  and  every 
year,  on  the  feast  of  Ste.  Angadreme,  a  grand  pro- 
cession marches  through  the  streets,  in  which  the 
women  are  given  the  right  of  precedence  over  the 
men,  in  memory  of  the  brave  deeds  of  Jeanne  and 
her  sisters. 


[  237  ] 


PARIS   AND   SOME   OF   ITS   CHURCHES 

as  a  Cathedral  city,  Paris  hardly  comes 
within  the  scheme  of  this  book.  It  has 
been  written  about  so  much  and  so  often, 
and  occupies,  both  architecturally  and 
historically,  such  a  position  as*  would  scarcely  justify 
any  but  a  full  and  detailed  description.  This  great 
city,  the  living,  moving  source  of  one  of  the  greatest 
nations  of  to-day,  and  at  one  time  the  mainspring  of 
Europe  itself,  is  not  to  be  passed  over  with  a  few 
terse  remarks;  it  is  as  though  one  tried  to  compress 
the  history  of  France  itself  into  a  single  chapter.  On 
the  one  hand,  a  short  sketch  can  hardly  hope  to  do 
justice  to  Paris;  on  the  other,  to  describe  it  at  such 
length  as  it  deserves  would  not  be  dealing  fairly  by 
the  lesser  towns,  and  further,  this  length  would  be 
so  great  as  to  render  absurd  its  inclusion  in  a  book  of 
traveller's  notes.  Rather  let  it  be  regarded  here  in 
the  light  of  point  d'appui  from  which  other  places 
max  ^^  visited  which  do  not  lie  on  the  direct  route 

t  238  J 


r' 


PARIS  AND   SOME  OF  ITS   CHURCHES 

from  Paris  to  the  provinces.  Without  attempting  any 
architectural  description,  however,  it  may  be  as  well, 
before  we  pass  outside  the  city  walls,  to  mention  three 
churches  within  Paris  of  which  illustrations  are  given 
here,  and  to  offer  the  briefest  possible  outline  of  their 
early  history  and  foundation,  as  well  as  that  of  the 
great  city  of  which  they  form  a  part. 

"  Paris  did  not,  like  London,  simply  grow  into 
the  capital  of  a  kingdom  already  existing.  The  city 
created  first  the  county  and  then  the  kingdom,  of 
which  it  was  successively  the  head."  In  those  days 
Paris  ranked  no  higher  than  Soissons,  Sens,  Laon, 
Orleans,  or  Rouen;  and  in  ecclesiastical  dignity  it 
was  inferior  to  some  of  them,  being,  it  is  true,  an 
episcopal  see,  but  not  a  metropolitan.  Certainly,  as 
we  have  seen,  it  was  approved  as  a  military  station 
by  Caesar,  and  beloved  as  a  residence  by  Julian ;  and 
the  great  position  the  city  now  holds  in  modern 
Europe  and  the  modern  world  is  rather  apt  to  bias 
our  estimate  of  these  early  honours,  which  were  un- 
doubtedly shared  by  many  other  of  the  Gallic  cities. 
Because  Paris  is  now  a  metropolitan  see,  the  centre 
of  political  and  social  France,  we  have  a  tendency  to 
think  that  in  all  times  the  city  must  have  ruled  her 
neighbour  towns  in  this  way;  whereas  it  was  only 
by  very  slow  degrees — long  after  it  had  become  the 
seat  of  royalty  and  the  nominal  capital  of  France — 

[  239  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

that  Paris  acquired  an  influence  beyond  the  bounds 
of  her  own  territories.  The  great  lords  of  Burgundy, 
of  Aquitaine,  of  Anjou,  of  Champagne — they  were 
vassals  to  the  king^  they  paid  him  homage,  they  gave 
him  their  military  service,  but  they  and  their  do- 
mains formed  no  part  of  France;  they  were  almost 
as  separate  from  any  head  or  centre  as  were  the  wide- 
scattered  Teutonic  states  east  of  the  Rhine.  Nor  was 
this  felt  to  be  in  any  way  a  disadvantage ;  the  kings 
in  Paris  would  doubtless  have  welcomed  the  firm 
allegiance  of  these  kings  in  all  but  name,  because  it 
would  have  meant  a  fresh  access  of  power,  an  added 
strength  wherewith  to  face  their  other  foes;  but  no 
idea  of  national  unity  had  any  place  in  their  calcula- 
tion. Paris  had  made  for  herself  a  dominion,  and  the 
time  was  to  come  when  that  dominion  should  stretch 
from  the  sea  on  the  north,  south  and  west,  to  the  river 
and  to  the  mountains  on  the  east;  but  as  yet  that  time 
had  not  arrived. 

One  more  event  which  took  place  after  Paris  be- 
came the  capital  of  France  may  be  recorded  here. 
This  is  the  attempted  siege  in  the  days  of  Joan  of 
Arc,  which  followed  as  the  sequel  to  the  king's  coro- 
nation at  Rheims.  Having  subdued  so  many  cities 
in  the  north  of  France,  and  given  to  Charles  VII. 
the  crown  of  his  ancestors,  it  was  but  natural  that 
Joan  should  be  anxious  to  lead  him  in  triumph  into 

[  240  ] 


»         »  >»>9>» 


»        »     »         »      1  »  • 


PARIS  AND  SOME  OF  ITS   CHURCHES 

his  capital,  which  at  present  declared  for  the  enemy, 
and  was  occupied  by  Cardinal  Beaufort's  English 
troops  and  the  army  of  Burgundy.  The  newly- 
crowned  king,  however,  apparently  considered  that 
he  had  borne  his  share  of  the  burden  in  the  late  pro- 
ceedings at  Rheims,  and  seemed  in  no  hurry  to  march 
upon  Paris.  Riding  through  the  smaller  towns, 
seeing  their  gates  flung  open  wide  to  him,  and  receiv- 
ing the  homage  and  acclamations  of  the  people,  were 
occupations  far  more  congenial  to  his  indolent  tastes 
than  bestirring  himself  to  take  the  field  again;  and  to 
their  infinite  annoyance  Joan  and  d'Alengon  per- 
ceived that  he  was  gradually  but  surely  working  his 
way  down  to  his  castles  on  the  Loire,  from  whose 
pleasant  meadows  they  knew  well  that  he  would 
never  return.  The  only  wonder  is  that  the  Maid 
did  not  lose  all  patience  and  leave  this  dilatory  prince 
to  his  fate.  Instead  of  this  she  set  out  with  the  Due 
d'Alengon  to  Saint  Denis,  leaving  Charles  at  Com- 
piegne,  whence  he  followed  them,  "  very  sore  against 
his  will,"  as  far  as  Senlis.  Meanwhile  each  day  of 
delay  gave  the  English  time  to  strengthen  their  posi- 
tion within  the  capital;  and  Joan  found  that  having 
brought  the  king  to  Senlis  was  by  no  means  the  same 
thing  as  conquering  his  unwillingness  to  strike  what 
she  and  her  party  believed  might  be,  if  rightly 
directed,  the  final  blow.    Each  time  the  Maid  and 

[241  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF  FRANCE 

d'AIengon  set  out  to  invest  Paris,  messages  came  from 
the  royal  camp,  commanding  them  to  desist  and 
return  to  Saint  Denis.  Finally  the  truth  came  out; 
the  king  cared  more  for  peace  and  ease  on  the  Loire 
than  for  glory  in  war,  and  desired  to  leave  the  camp. 
Had  Joan  believed  less  firmly  in  the  divine  right  of 
kings,  it  is  probable  that  she  would  have  rebelled 
and  besieged  Paris  on  her  own  responsibility;  on  the 
other  hand,  had  Charles  been  left  to  the  counsels  of 
d'Alengon  and  the  brave  captains  Dunois  and  La 
Hire,  there  is  reason  to  suppose  that  he  might  have 
been  persuaded  to  follow  where  Joan  led,  and  might 
under  her  guidance  have  subdued  Paris  in  a  very 
short  time.  But  there  were  the  king's  favourites  to 
reckon  with,  and  these  were  not  men  of  war,  but  of 
peace,  and  not  always  of  peace  with  honour — the 
foolish  La  Tremouille  and  the  crafty  Archbishop  of 
Rheims,  one  of  Joan's  worst  opposers — and  these 
advisers  easily  worked  upon  the  king's  indolent  good- 
nature to  find  in  the  eagerness  of  the  Maid  an  undue 
desire  for  fresh  conquest.  As  it  was,  Joan  saw  noth- 
ing before  her  but  to  obey  the  man  to  whom,  as  she 
believed,  God  had  given  the  right  to  go  or  stay,  to 
fight  or  to  lie  in  peace,  as  his  Majesty  chose.  She 
went  to  the  statue  of  the  Virgin  at  Saint  Denis,  bear- 
ing her  armour;  and  there,  kneeling  in  the  church, 
she  dedicated  to  Our  Lady  of  Victories  the  helmet, 

[  242  J 


PARIS  AND   SOME  OF  ITS   CHURCHES 

hauberk  and  coat  of  mail  in  which  she  had  done  so 
many  great  feats  of  arms;  and  then  rose  and  followed 
her  king  on  his  journey  to  the  pleasant  lands  of  the 
Loire. 

The  early  history  of  Paris  lies  buried  in  the  un- 
recorded pages  of  the  life  of  primaeval  man.  Its 
origin  is  humble  in  comparison  with  that  of  other 
capitals,  although  it  bears  a  strong  analogy  to  those 
surrounding  physical  conditions  to  which  Venice 
owed  its  existence.  Its  cradle,  according  to  M.  Hoff- 
bauer,  Paris  a  traverse  les  ages,  was  a  small  narrow 
island  in  the  middle  of  the  young  Seine,  which  had 
then  cut  for  itself  its  channel  through  the  alluvial 
plains  which  had  been  left  by  the  retiring  sea  towards 
the  end  of  the  Geological  Tertiary  period  at  the  close 
of  the  glacial  epoch.  It  was  part  of  a  group 
of  five  islands,  of  which  three  very  soon  disappeared, 
their  soil  being  probably  used  either  for  embank- 
ments or  for  purposes  of  defence.  As  in  the  great 
estuary  leading  up  to  the  morass  surrounding  Lon- 
don, many  changes  had  been  wrought  by  the  hand  of 
man  in  the  general  appearance  of  the  Paris  basin.  It 
is  true  that  the  great  embankments  constructed  by  the 
Romans  to  keep  the  waters  of  the  Thames  within 
defined  limits  are  not  to  be  traced  in  the  valley  of 
the  Seine,  yet  the  rude  habitations  of  wattle  huts 
built  on  whatever  hillocks  were  attainable   entailed 

[  243  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

embankments  to  a  certain  extent  which  should  keep 
the  Seine  within  its  bounds  at  times  of  extraordinary 
flood.  As  it  stands  to-day  Paris  is  in  one  of  the  most 
fertile  parts  of  the  territory;  it  is  on  the  banks  of  a 
great  river  which  brings  to  it  by  its  main  stream  and 
by  its  affluents  the  tribute  of  the  richest  provinces;  it 
is  surrounded  by  materials  most  necessary  for  the 
construction  of  its  public  and  private  edifices;  and 
it  is  endowed  by  nature  with  all  the  fruitful  resources 
tending  towards  the  aggrandisement  both  of  power 
and  fortune. 

The  condition  of  the  early  inhabitants  of  the  Paris 
basin  was  that  of  one  continual  warfare  against  the 
denizens  of  the  jungle,  which  with  its  rich  and 
abundant  vegetation  covered  the  surrounding  coun- 
try. Caverns  and  other  places  chosen  for  their  abodes 
were  disputed  with  lions,  hyenas  and  tigers.  The 
chase  was  their  only  means  of  subsistence  (the  art  of 
husbandry  being  entirely  unknown),  and  the  num- 
ber of  stone  hatchets  and  harpoons,  fishing-hooks, 
lances,  &c.,  found  deeply  buried  in  the  alluvial  soil, 
bear  testimony  to  the  struggle  for  existence  amongst 
the  early  inhabitants  of  the  Seine  valley. 

Caesar,  when  he  was  appointed  commander  of  the 
Gauls  in  B.C.  59,  found  their  central  point  of  Paris 
inhabited  by  a  Cymric  or  Celtic  population,  which 
he  calls  Gauls  in  his  language  but  Celts  in  their  own, 

[  244  ] 


PARIS   AND   SOME  OF  ITS   CHURCHES 

and  separated  from  the  Belgae  by  the  Seine  and 
Marne.  Caesar  wrote  the  place  "  Lutetia,"  and  when 
he  convoked  the  inhabitants  of  Gaul  to  this  town  the 
neighbouring  tribe  was  designated  as  "  Parisii,"  and 
allied  to  the  powerful  clan  of  the  Senones. 

With  reference  to  the  meaning  of  the  word 
"  Parisii,"  M.  Bulet,  in  the  "  Dictionnaire  Celtique," 
says  that  "  bar  "  or  "  par  "  means  in  Celtic  a  boat 
(bateau),  and  that  the  low  Bretons  call  the  cargo  of 
a  boat  "far."  Herodotus  (book  ii.,  96),  in  his 
description  of  the  method  of  floating  boats  down 
stream  on  the  Nile  by  means  of  a  raft  fastened  on  in 
front  with  a  stone  dragging  behind,  calls  the  boat 
"  baris,"  and  says  that  some  of  them  are  many  thou- 
sand talents  burthen.  They  were  probably  flat- 
bottomed,  and  similar  to  those  now  seen  on  the  rivers. 
The  Celtic  word  "  par,"  signifying  a  boat,  might 
well  have  produced  the  name  Parisii,  meaning  boat- 
men, men  who  passed  all  their  life  in  the  "  baris." 

The  most  ancient  emblem  of  Lutetia  which  has 
been  preserved  from  antiquity  is  that  of  the  prow  of 
a  boat  which  one  sees  sculptured  on  the  springing 
of  the  vault  of  the  Roman  palace  of  the  Thermes, 
built  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Seine;  the  powerful 
association  of  the  Nautae  Parisiaci,  which  is  found 
at  the  head  of  the  Parisian  Navigation  represented 
by  the  prow  of  a  boat,  has  therefore  a  direct  Celtic 

[  245  ] 


CATHEDRAL  CITIES   OF  FRANCE 

or  Gallic  origin.  Living  only  in  rude  cabins  the  early 
inhabitants  naturally  possessed  no  public  building. 
Caesar  therefore  conceived  the  idea  of  convoking  the 
Gaulish  chiefs  into  one  central  place  or  forum,  and 
ordered  to  be  built  a  "  Suggestum,"  a  tribune  from 
which  he  could  harangue  the  assembled  headmen. 
This  is  considered  by  some  French  architects  as  the 
earliest  indication  of  their  edilite  natssdnte.  As 
further  evidence  of  their  building  and  engineering 
capability,  the  inhabitants  of  Lutetia  threw  out 
bridges  to  join  their  island  to  the  main  banks  of  the 
river.  Caesar  frequently  refers  to  the  bridges  built 
by  the  Gauls,  such  as  the  one  at  Melun,  on  the  Seine, 
another  across  the  AUier,  near  Vichy,  of  which 
ancient  foundations  and  piers  have  been  found, 
another  at  Orleans,  and  of  such  slender  construction 
as  to  have  especially  attracted  his  attention,  and, 
finally,  the  bridge  of  Lutetia  across  the  main  arm  of 
the  Seine,  the  predecessor  of  the  present  Pont  Notre 
Dame,  which  has  also  left  traces  of  its  ancient 
piers. 

In  Rome  the  Nautae  Tiberis  were  a  corporation 
who  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  carrying  corn  and  other 
produce  from  Ostia  to  the  capital;  similar  associa- 
tions existed  in  Gaul  in  addition  to  the  Nautae  Pari- 
siaci,  and  on  a  wall  of  the  amphitheatre  of  Nimes 
is  an  inscription  in  which  as  many  as  forty  places 

[  246  ] 


PARIS   AND   SOME  OF   ITS   CHURCHES 

are  mentioned  where  corporations  enjoying  the  same 
privileges  and  immunities  existed.  No  wonder  the 
territory  of  the  Parisii  increased  in  commercial 
activity.  Watered  by  the  Seine,  the  Marne  and  the 
Oise,  its  trade  routes  by  land  and  by  water  were  fully 
organised  and  guarded  by  powerful  associations 
which  existed  almost  before  the  Roman  Conquest, 
and  attracted  the  attention  of  the  writer  Strabo.  It 
soon  developed  under  such  advantages  into  a  pros- 
perous and  enlightened  city.  Roman  buildings  took 
the  place  of  the  Gallic  huts,  Roman  laws  governed 
the  city,  Roman  customs  and  manners  prevailed 
amongst  the  inhabitants,  and  by  the  time  the  first 
messengers  of  Christianity  had  penetrated  into  Gaul 
Lutetia  had  become  a  city  not  of  the  Gauls,  but  of 
the  Romans.  Curiously  enough  it  was  from  Rome 
also  that  these  early  messengers  came,  to  preach  their 
doctrine  to  a  Roman  city.  The  pioneers  were  Saint 
Denis,  generally  confounded,  for  the  sake  of  the 
antiquity  of  the  Gallican  Church,  with  the  convert 
of  Saint  Paul,  Dionysiiis  the  Areopagite,  and  two 
companions,  Eleutherius  and  Rusticus;  and  their 
work  was  carried  on  by  Martin  of  Tours,  one  of  the 
bravest  soldiers  of  the  Emperor  Julian,  who  left  the 
army  to  preach  the  faith  in  Gaul,  and  to  stamp  out 
the  cult  of  the  old  pagan  gods.  Speaking  of  Julian, 
moreover,  may  serve  to  remind  us  that  it  was  at 

[  247  ] 


CATHEDRAL    CITIES   OF.   FRANCE 

Paris  that  he  was  first  proclaimed  emperor;  here  was 
his  palace  before  his  imperial  honours  came  upon 
him,  and  here,  he  declares  in  his  own  writings,  were 
spent  the  three  happiest  winters  of  his  life,  showing 
that  even  in  these  early  times  Lutetia  was  a  fair  and 
pleasant  city,  as  it  is  to-day. 

In  the  following  centuries  Gaul  was  overrun  with 
tribes  from  the  east,  Goths  and  Visigoths,  Alemnanni 
and  Huns,  Burgundians  and  Franks.  The  last- 
named  broke  down  the  Roman  defences  all  over  the 
land  and  seized  upon  Paris.  A  new  era  now  began 
for  the  city.  Under  Clovis,  the  first  Frank  king,  it 
became  the  official  capital  of  the  State  in  508,  and 
from  this  time  forward  takes  its  place  as  one  of  the 
great  cities  of  France.  After  the  conversion  of 
Clovis,  abbeys  and  churches  were  built,  great  bishops 
and  great  saints  preached  and  wrote  their  message, 
and  indeed  the  eccleciastical  fabric  of  the  city  seems 
to  have  grown  up  more  quickly  than  the  civil  fabric, 
until  the  time  of  Charlemagne,  when  craftsmen's 
guilds  were  established,  Jewish  capitalists  admitted 
within  the  walls,  and  a  mercantile  reputation 
founded.  Then  a  second  time  the  work  of  the  con- 
querors seemed  to  be  undone.  The  Northmen,  more 
terrible  invaders  than  Goths  or  Franks,  plundered 
the  coast-lands  and  presently  swept  up  the  Seine  past 
Rouen  to  Paris,  where  they  worked  such  havoc  as 

[  248  ] 


PARIS   AND   SOME  OF   ITS   CHURCHES 

the  town  had  never  before  known.  The  streets  were 
set  in  flames,  the  monasteries  were  sacked  and  burnt, 
the  priests  and  monks  were  massacred  without  mercy; 
yet  all  this  evil  was  to  end  in  better  things.  The 
very  persistency  of  the  Normans  in  besieging  and 
pillaging  a  town  four  and  five  times,  argued  that  the 
town  itself  must  be  worth  the  trouble,  and  the 
"  lords  "  of  Paris  speedily  began  to  look  to  its  safety. 
V/cak,  foolish  Charles  the  Fat  could  devise  no  better 
plan  than  the  cowardly  one  of  bribing  the  invaders 
to  retreat;  but  Eudes,  Count  of  Paris,  knew  that  this 
would  only  be  an  inducement  to  them  to  come  again, 
and  determined  once  and  for  all  to  rid  his  city,  at 
least,  of  this  scourge.  This  he  did  with  such  effect 
that  the  crown  of  France  was  given  to  him  and  the 
inefficient  Charles  deposed.  It  was  his  nephew, 
Hugh  the  Great,  who  ruled  at  Paris  in  Rolfs  day, 
and  waged  constant  war  with  Neustria  and  Charles 
the  Simple,  the  last  of  the  Carlovingian  kings,  on  the 
hill-crest  at  Laon.  Then,  at  the  end  of  the  tenth 
century,  began  the  feudal  monarchy  under  the  Cape- 
tian  dynasty.  The  first  of  the  line  was  the  eldest  son 
of  Hugh  the  Great,  and  the  connections  which  he 
brought  with  him  promised  well  for  the  prestige  of 
his  new  kingdom.  On  the  one  side,  he  was  brother- 
in-law  to  the  Norman  Duke,  Richard  the  Fearless; 
on  the  other,  his  own  brother  Odo  was  Duke  of  Bur- 

[  249  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

gundy;  in  his  own  right  he  was  lord  of  Picardy,  of 
Maine,  of  Chartres,  of  Tours,  of  Blois,  and  of  Or- 
leans; and  his  bond  with  the  Church  was  further 
strengthened  by  the  fact  that  he  held  the  lay  abbacies 
of  Saint  Martin,  near  Tours,  and  Saint  Denis,  near 
Paris.  Thus  the  kingdom  with  which  Hugh  Capet 
began  his  reign  was  a  fairly  compact  strip  of  land, 
having  as  boundaries  Flanders  to  the  north,  Aqui- 
taine  to  the  south.  Champagne  to  the  east,  and  Nor- 
mandy to  the  west.  Of  this  kingdom  Paris  was 
nearly  the  actual  geographical  centre,  and  soon  be- 
came the  political  centre  also. 

The  early  importance  of  Paris  in  the  tenth  century 
is  very  different  to  that  of  London.  Paris  at  this  time 
was  a  military  position  of  growing  importance,  both 
from  its  central  situation  and  its  place  on  the  island 
in  the  Seine.  London  on  her  Thames  had  an  almost 
similar  position,  but  she  derived  her  power  not 
merely  from  her  Teutonic  conquerors,  but  also  from 
her  early  connection  with  Roman  and  Celtic  Britain; 
while  as  a  military  stronghold  she  was  no  less  to  be 
desired. 

The  eastern  point  of  the  city,  where  the  only  bridge 
then  existed,  traversing  the  Seine  in  the  exact  place 
where  now  stands  the  Pont  Notre  Dame,  a  point 
where  the  roads  through  the  province  converged,  was 
already  a  place  sacred  to  the  Gauls.    Here  were  per- 

[  250  ] 


PARIS  AND  SOME  OF  ITS   CHURCHES 

formed  rites  and  sacrifices  to  their  mysterious  divini- 
ties in  an  underground  church  which  existed  in  the 
third  century.  Probably  the  tradition  of  dark  deeds 
of  persecution  of  the  early  Christians,  human  sacri- 
fices, and  missionaries  suffering  death  in  the  cages 
of  lions  which  were  kept  for  the  purpose  of  exhibi- 
tions, prevented  the  Parisian  boatmen,  when  they 
heard  of  the  wonderful  tidings  of  Galilee,  from  using 
this  Gaulish  building,  so  full  of  terrible  reminis- 
cences, as  their  first  church.  The  site  of  the  Temple 
of  Jupiter  was  chosen  for  the  establishment  of  a 
church  which  should  stamp  out  the  heathen  religion, 
crush  with  its  heel  the  serpent's  head  and  build  upon 
its  ruins  a  temple  of  the  Holy  Cross.  About  375,  on 
the  site  of  the  Temple  of  Jupiter,  was  built  a  church 
dedicated  to  Saint  Etienne,  which  may  be  considered 
as  the  first  Cathedral  of  Paris. 

To  the  splendour  of  this  early  basilica,  built  by 
Childebert  in  the  early  Latin  style,  with  its  marble 
columns,  some  of  which  are  now  in  the  Musee  de 
Cluny,  the  monk  Fortunatus  bears  witness,  and  his 
description  of  the  edifice  is  thus  given  in  M.  Hofif- 
bauer's  book  on  Paris :  "  Le  vaisseau  de  cette  eglise 
repose  sur  des  colonnes  de  marbre,  et  le  soin  avec 
lequel  on  I'entretient  en  augment  la  beaute.  Le  pre- 
mier il  fut  eclaire  de  fenetres  ornees  de  verres  trans- 
parents  par  lesquels  on  regoit  la  lumiere.    On  dirait 

[  251  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

que  la  main  d'un  ouvrier  habile  a  emprisonne  le  jour 
dans  le  sanctuaire.  Les  feux  tremblants  de  I'aurore 
naissante  semblant  se  jouer  jusque  dans  les  lambris, 
et  le  temple  est  eclaire  par  la  chartedu  jour  meme, 
quand  le  soliel  ne  se  montre  pas.  Le  roi  Childebert, 
anime  d'un  zele  particulier  pour  cette  eglise  destin^e 
a  son  peuple,  I'a  dotee  de  richesses  qui  ne  doivent 
jaimais  s'epuiser;  toujours  passione  pour  les  interets 
de  la  religion,  il  s'est  empresse  d^augmenter  ses  res- 
sources.  Nouveau  Melchisedech,  notre  roi  est  en 
meme  temps  un  pontife  qui  remplit  exactement  ses 
devoirs  de  fidele  comme  ses  devoirs  de  pasteur.  Bien 
qu'occupe  dans  le  palais  qu'il  habite  du  soin  de 
rendre  la  justice,  son  plus  grand  desir  est  d'imiter 
I'example  des  saints  eveques.  II  quitte  la  premiere 
charge  pour  en  remplir  une  autre  avec  plus  d'hon- 
neur,  et  le  souvenir  de  ses  grandes  actions  lui  assure 
I'immortalite." 

By  the  twelfth  century  the  basilica  has  disap- 
peared, and  its  place  has  been  taken,  not  by  a  single 
church,  but  by  two  churches  side  by  side — Sainte 
Marie  on  the  north,  Saint  Etienne  on  the  south.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  century  Saint  Etienne  was  the 
more  important  of  the  two,  having  escaped  plunder 
at  the  hands  of  the  Normans,  who  wrought  considera- 
ble destruction  in  the  sister  church;  but  a  twelfth- 
century  archdeacon,  Etienne  de  Garlande,  took  upon 

[  252  ] 


PARIS   AND   SOME  OF   ITS   CHURCHES 

himself  the  task  of  restoring  Sainte  Marie,  which 
became  known  as  the  nova  ecclesia,  and  formed  the 
foundation  of  the  great  basilica  planned  by  Maurice 
de  Sully.  This  church,  begun  in  1163,  was  to  unite 
Saint  Etienne  and  Sainte  Marie;  the  foundation 
stone  was  laid  by  Pope  Alexander  III.,  and  in  1218 
the  remains  of  the  old  church  of  Saint  Etienne  were 
destroyed  to  make  way  for  the  south  aisle  of  Notre 
Dame.  The  work  went  on  into  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury; the  great  west  portal  was  probably  finished 
about  1223,  ^^^  those  of  the  transepts  some  forty  years 
later. 

"  There  are  absolutely  only  these  two  churches 
(Notre  Dame  and  the  Sainte  Chapelle)  left  standing 
in  the  island  of  the  city,  and  there  is  nothing  in  the 
history  of  Paris  which  more  clearly  exhibits  the 
modern  disposition  to  make  a  tabula  rasa  of  the  past." 
In  the  Middle  Ages  the  great  Cathedral  of  Paris — 
"  cathedral "  since  the  twelfth  century — stood  in  its 
island  of  La  Cite  amidst  a  perfect  cluster  of  lesser 
churches,  of  which  only  the  chapel  of  Saint  Louis 
remains.  Mr.  Hamerton,  whose  words  are  quoted 
above,  gives  quite  a  considerable  list  of  them  in  his 
"  Paris  in  Old  and  Present  Times,"  Sainte  Gene- 
vieve, Saint  Jean  le  Rond,  Saint  Denis  du  Pas,  and 
its  brother  church  of  La  Chartre— these  are  but  a 
few  of  their  names,  and  yet  these  names  are  all  that 

[  253  ] 


CATHEDRAL    CITIES    OF   FRANCE 

now  remain  of  churches  where  mediaeval  knights  and 
burghers  and  artificers  worshipped,  and  into  whose 
building  mediaeval  architects,  unknown  and  for- 
gotten, put  their  best  work  and  their  highest  service; 
even  their  sites  are,  in  most  cases,  undiscoverable 
amongst  the  great  mass  of  buildings,  and  bright  wide 
streets,  and  green  gardens  of  Paris  as  we  know  it. 
Some  of  these  churches,  like  Saint  Aignan  and  Saint 
Germain-le-Vieux,  have  left  a  few  isolated  columns 
and  stones,  but  to  find  these,  as  one  writer  observes, 
"  il  faudrait  penetrer  dans  les  maisons  et  se  livrer  a 
des  recherches."  Another,  the  old  Madeleine,  has 
suffered  an  even  worse  fate,  its  last  remaining  chapel 
being  now  transformed  into  a  wine-shop  at  the  corner 
of  the  Rue  des  Marmousets;  a  private  house  now 
stands  upon  the  site  of  Saint-Pierre  aux  Boeufs,  built, 
says  an  inscription  on  the  fagade,  in  the  middle  of  the 
twelfth  century,  and  demolished  as  late  as  1837;  and 
as  for  Saint  Michel  du  Palais,  within  whose  walls 
Archibishop  Maurice  de  Sully  baptised  Philip 
Augustus  in  1165,  nothing  remains  to  the  memory  of 
the  Archangel  but  the  bridge  over  the  Seine. 
"  *  There  is  my  bridge  still,'  Saint  Michael  may 
think,  *  but  as  for  my  church  I  seek  for  it  in  vain.' " 
These  vanished  churches  are  too  many  all  to  be  num- 
bered here,  since  in  La  Cite  alone  there  were,  up  to 
the  eighteenth  century,  no  less  than  seventeen  of 

[  254  ] 


< 

Q 


PARIS   AND   SOME  OF  ITS   CHURCHES 

them,  and  outside  the  walls  of  the  city  there  were 
many  more. 

Happily  Notre  Dame  has  better  withstood  the  at- 
tacks of  time  and  all  the  accidents  of  fire,  plunder, 
and  desecration.  Five  years  or  so  after  the  comple- 
tion of  the  western  fagade  a  fire  broke  out,  and  in  the 
restoration  the  double-arched  buttresses  of  the  former 
apse  disappeared,  and  the  windows  were  enlarged  in 
accordance  with  the  growing  love  of  light  which  was 
being  manifested  in  other  cathedrals  all  through 
France.  In  more  modern  times — towards  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century — the  extraordinary  taste  of 
the  late  Renaissance  period  ordered  the  removal  of 
all  the  stained  glass  both  of  nave  and  choir — leaving, 
however,  the  western  rose  window  and  the  two  in  the 
transepts — and  this  is,  of  course,  a  loss  that  can  never 
be  repaired,  although  the  restorations  of  Viollet-le- 
Duc  have  probably,  as  Mr.  Hamerton  says,  gone  some 
way  towards  bringing  back  the  original  effect  of  light 
in  the  interior  of  the  church.  The  exterior  of  the 
nave  likewise  suffered  not  a  little  from  the  doubtless 
well-meaning  zeal  of  an  unarchitectural  age,  which 
had  literally  stripped  it  bare  of  all  ornament:  "  One 
after  another  the  architects  had  suppressed  the  ad- 
vancing parts  of  the  buttresses  between  the  chapels, 
the  gables,  the  friezes,  the  balustrades — in  one  word, 
the  entire  ornamentation  of  these  same  chapels,  the 

[255  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

pinnacles  which  decorated  the  tops  of  the  buttresses, 
with  the  statues  which  accompanied  them  and  their 
flowering  spires,  the  picturesque  gargoyles  which 
rendered  the  services  of  throwing  the  rain-water  to 
a  distance  from  the  walls." 

"  We  may  take  it  for  granted,"  Mr.  Lonergan  says 
in  his  "  Historic  Churches  of  Paris,"  "  that  those  who 
dedicated  the  church  to  the  Virgin  were  not  in- 
fluenced alone  by  the  fact  that  a  previous  temple  in 
her  honour  had  stood  on  the  banks  of  the  river,  but 
by  the  impetus  given  to  what  Protestants  call  her 
*  worship '  and  Catholics  her  *  cult '  or  devotion  in 
the  twelfth  century."  From  the  earliest  times  there 
existed,  especially  among  sailors  and  fishermen,  the 
feeling  of  devotion  to  the  Virgin  Mary.  They  prayed 
to  her  who  held  the  Divine  Infant  on  her  knees  to 
intercede  for  the  lives  of  men  who  sailed  across  the 
waters  on  dark  and  starless  nights.  This  worship  of 
the  Virgin  steadily  grew  all  over  France,  and  the 
founders  of  the  great  monastic  orders — Saint  Augus- 
tin,  Saint  Benedict,  and  Saint  Francis,  and  the 
famous  Saint  Bernard  of  Clairvaulx — are  all  in- 
cluded by  Dante  as  paying  special  devotion  to  the 
Virgin ;  and  history  has  furnished  us  with  many  other 
names,  amongst  which  are  those  of  Hildebert,  the 
bishop  of  Le  Mans,  Yves  and  Pierre,  bishops  of 
Chartres,  and  the  scholar  of  St.  Denis,  Pierre  Abe- 

[  256] 


PARIS  AND  SOME  OF  ITS   CHURCHES 

lard.  At  no  time  was  this  more  noticeable  than  in  the 
centuries  following  the  completion  of  Notre  Dame. 
In  consequence  of  this  great  growth  of  Mary-wor- 
ship, the  Virgin  came  to  be  regarded  as  the  protec- 
tress of  the  people — as,  indeed,  she  is  to  this  day — 
and  the  Church  of  Notre  Dame  began  to  be  the 
people's  church,  a  kind  of  centre,  civil  as  well  as 
ecclesiastical,  of  the  city  life.  For  instance,  Notre 
Dame  in  Paris  became  not  only  tfie  house  of  worship 
and  prayer,  but  "  the  house  both  of  God  and  man," 
and  this  through  no  irreverent  feeling.  The  parvis 
or  garden  in  front  of  the  Cathedral  became  a  gather- 
ing-ground for  the  townsfolk — a  remnant  of  this 
feeling,  it  would  seem,  still  exists  in  the  markets 
which  in  lesser  towns  are  nearly  always  held  round 
the  church — fairs  took  place  there,  the  buyers  bring- 
ing their  purchases  to  be  blessed  by  the  priest  as  they 
passed  the  church  steps;  and  the  various  festivals  of 
the  Church  gave  rise  to  secular  feasts  and  sports  of 
all  kinds,  as  well  as  to  the  performance  of  the  miracle 
plays  which  were  attended  by  the  people  with  such 
simple  wonder  and  reverence,  and  which  in  England 
laid  the  foundation  of  the  secular  comedies. 

The  monks  of  Saint  Germain  originally  came  from 
Autun,  and  at  first  acknowledged  the  rule  of  Saint 
Basil,  which  was  afterwards  exchanged  for  that  of 
Saint  Benedict.    After  its  restoration  in  the  eleventh 

[  257  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

century  the  foundations  became  very  powerful,  and 
round  its  walls  grew  up  the  bourg  of  Saint  Germain; 
later  it  became  the  Faubourg  of  that  name,  the  "  in- 
tellectual quarter  "  of  Paris,  the  haunt  of  all  the  most 
brilliant  spirits  of  the  day;  whose  streets  were 
trodden  by  great  men,  and  marked  by  the  footsteps 
of  genius. 

The  Abbey  Church  of  Saint-Germain-des-Pres 
likewise  owes  its  existence  to  the  Merovingian 
Childebert.  In  the  sixth  century  Childebert  went 
on  an  expedition  against  the  Visigoths  in  Spain,  and 
returned  triumphant  with  a  number  of  sainted  relics, 
among  them  the  tunic  of  Saint  Vincent  and  a  mag- 
nificent gold  cross;  and  in  honour  of  these  trophies 
and  for  their  safe  keeping  he  built  in  the  fields  out- 
side Paris  a  monastery,  which  was  consecrated  by 
Saint  Germain,  so  the  legend  says,  the  very  day  of 
its  royal  founder's  death.  The  abbey  was  originally 
dedicated,  in  memory  of  the  relics  which  it  guarded, 
to  Saint  Vincent  and  the  Holy  Cross;  but  after  the 
death  of  its  first  abbot.  Saint  Germain,  in  576,  it 
became  known  by  his  name.  Before  the  building  of 
the  Abbey  of  Saint  Denis,  Saint-Germain-des-Pres 
was  the  burial  place  of  the  royal  house,  and  a  long 
line  of  Childeberts,  Chilperics,  and  Chlothars  lie  at 
rest  beneath  its  stones.  It  was  pillaged  and  burnt  by 
the  Normans  no  less  than  five  times,  and  therefore, 

[  258  ] 


ST.  GERMAIN  DES  PRES,  PARIS 


PARIS  AND   SOME  OF  ITS   CHURCHES 

when  the  Abbot  Morard  set  about  rebuilding  it  in 
the  eleventh  century,  very  little  v^as  left  of  Childe- 
bert's  old  foundation.  Part  of  Morard's  work  may 
still  be  seen  in  the  present  nave  of  the  church;  the 
choir  and  apse  were  built  later,  and  date  from  the 
second  half  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  church  being 
finally  consecrated  by  Pope  Alexander  III.  in  1163. 

The  wealth  of  the  monastery  even  so  late  as  the 
eighteenth  century  may  be  gauged  by  the  indigna- 
tion of  Arthur  Young,  who  in  his  travels  through 
France  in  1786-7  of  course  visited  the  capital  and  its 
many  churches,  but  looked  upon  everything  with  the 
eye  of  an  agriculturist,  and  only  saw  in  the  rich 
meadows  of  the  Benedictines  so  much  wasted  mate- 
rial for  a  prosperous  farm.  "  It  is  the  richest  abbey 
in  France;  the  abbot  has  300,000  liv.  a  year.  I  lose 
my  patience  at  seeing  such  revenues  thus  bestowed, 
consistent  with  the  spirit  of  the  tenth  century,  but  not 
with  that  of  the  eighteenth.  What  a  noble  farm 
would  a  fourth  of  this  income  establish!  What  tur- 
nips, what  cabbages,  what  potatoes,  what  clover, 
what  sheep,  what  wool !  Are  not  these  things  better 
than  a;  fat  ecclesiastic?  " 

Like  Saint-Germain-des-Pres,  the  Sainte  Cha- 
pelle  originated  in  a  sanctuary  where  precious  relics 
might  be  safely  deposited,  though  its  foundation 
does  not  date  back  to  the  early  zeal  of  the  fresh- 

[  259  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

converted  Merovingian  kings,  but  only  to  the  cru- 
sades of  Louis  the  Saint,  who  brought  from  the  East 
the  Crown  of  Thorns  and  some  fragments  of  the 
True  Cross.  Legend  describes  the  king  as  walking 
bare-foot  through  the  streets  of  Sens  and  Paris,  dis- 
playing his  treasure-trove  to  an  adoring  multitude; 
but  it  soon  became  necessary  to  place  the  relics  in 
sanctuary,  and  accordingly,  in  1245,  the  celebrated 
architect,  Pierre  de  Montereau,  began  to  work  out 
his  plans  under  the  direction  of  the  king,  and  com- 
pleted his  chapel  three  years  later.  Its  form  was  a 
curious  one,  consisting  of  two  stages;  the  upper  one, 
dedicated  to  the  Sainte  Couronne  and  the  Sainte 
Croix,  was  reserved  for  the  king  and  his  court;  the 
lower,  bearing  the  name  of  the  Virgin,  was  given 
over  to  servants,  retainers,  and  the  general  multitude. 
This  upper  chapel,  which  was  then  and  still  is 
to-day  the  chief  glory  of  the  building,  was  on  a 
level  with  the  royal  apartments  in  the  adjoining 
palace,  and  could  thus  be  reached  without  descend- 
ing into  the  court  and  re-ascending  by  the  staircase. 
This  chapel  was  the  joy  of  Saint  Louis'  life,  and 
during  his  reign  no  cost  was  spared  in  order  to  make 
it  a  fitting  receptacle  for  the  relics  which  he  ven- 
erated and  believed  in  as  simply  as  a  child,  and  for 
which  he  is  said  to  have  paid  to  the  Byzantine 
emperor  the  enormous  sum  of  two  million  livres.  As 

[  260  ] 


PARIS   AND   SOME  OF   ITS   CHURCHES 

it  now  stands,  the  Sainte  Chapelle  has  been  almost 
completely  restored,  and  this  restoration,  which  was 
carried  out  in  the  last  century,  was  embarked  upon 
none  to  soon,  judging  from  the  accounts  given  of  the 
state  of  the  church  after  the  Revolution.  To  begin 
with,  it  had  been  desecrated  under  the  rule  of  the 
Goddess  of  Reason,  and  used  for  storing  legal  docu- 
ments and  papers;  the  beautiful  glass  of  its  windows, 
with  its  marvellous  minuteness  of  design,  was  either 
destroyed  or  irregularly  patched  up;  the  spire  was 
gone,  and  so  was  much  of  the  sculpture  and  ornament, 
both  outside  and  inside.  There  it  stood,  this  monu- 
ment of  the  piety  of  St.  Louis,  its  founder  forgotten, 
its  glory  departed,  and  its  actual  structure  in  danger 
of  being  swept  away.  Even  its  ancient  surroundings, 
the  Great  Hall,  the  Cour  de  Mai,  and  the  Cour  des 
Comptes  of  Louis  XII.,  had  vanished;  their  place 
was  occupied  by  modern  law-courts,  and  the  half- 
ruined  church  seemed  hopelessly  out  of  date  and  out 
of  place.  By  a  great  stroke  of  good  fortune  the 
balance  turned  in  its  favour;  it  was  decided  not  to 
pull  it  down,  but  to  restore  it  as  a  chapel  attached 
to  the  courts,  where  the  lawyer  might  hear  Mass; 
and,  thanks  to  the  care  and  skill  of  the  restoring 
architect,  it  stands  to-day  in  all  essentials  much  as  it 
did  when  Louis  IX.  worshipped  there  with  his  cour- 
tiers, when  the  light  from  the  tall  windows  streamed 

[261  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

in  upon  the  bright  armour  and  rich  garments  of 
hundreds  of  noble  figures,  staining  them  with  new 
and  wonderful  colours,  and  when  the  courts  below 
were  alive  with  a  motley  crowd,  townsfolk  of  Paris, 
pressing  to  get  a  sight  of  the  king's  majesty,  servants 
and  retainers  thronging  round  the  doors  or  filing  into 
Mass  in  the  Chapel  of  the  Virgin  below,  whose  low 
roof  and  vaulting  really  gave  it  the  appearance  of  a 
crypt  to  the  soaring  chapel  of  the  Crown  and  Cross 
above  it. 

Until  the  time  of  Henri  II.  the  kings  of  France 
lived  in  the  great  "  Salle  des  Pas  Perdus "  as  their 
royal  palace;  then  the  Parlement  of  Paris — a  purely 
legal  body — took  possession  of  it,  and  the  easy-going 
canons  of  the  Sainte  Chapelle  ministered  not  to 
princes  and  nobles,  but  to  the  brisk,  alert  gens  de  la 
robe,  who  were  quick  to  note  and  to  laugh  at  their 
comfortable  ecclesiastical  placidity  and  ridiculous 
petty  quarrels.  Boileau,  the  famous  satirist,  was  the 
son  of  a  registrar,  and  grew  up  under  the  shadow  of 
the  law-courts,  and  it  was  he  who  in  his  "  Lutrin  " 
victimised  the  poor,  ease-loving  prebends  and  canons 
more  than  any  of  his  fellows,  though  one  of  these 
canons  was  his  own  brother,  and  after  Boileau's 
death  heaped  coals  of  fire  upon  the  head,  or  rather, 
upon  the  memory,  of  the  poet,  by  allowing  his  bones 
to  rest  within  the  building  at  whose  servants  he  had 

[  262  ] 


PONT  ST.  MICHEL  AND  STE.  CHAPELLE,  PARIS 


PARIS   AND   SOME  OF  ITS   CHURCHES 

so  mercilessly  mocked.  The  lawyers  still  have  the 
possession  of  the  Sainte  Chapelle;  but  all  stalls  and 
seats  have  been  removed  and  its  doors  are  opened 
once  a  year  only,  v^hen  the  autumn  session  begins, 
being  inaugurated  by  the  "  Messe  Rouge,"  celebrated 
by  the  Archbishop  of  Paris  himself. 

The  Benedictine  foundation  of  Saint  Denis, 
though  it  stands  outside  the  v^alls  of  the  city,  in  a 
suburb  where  the  tangle  of  machinery  and  smoke 
of  factories  make  strange  surroundings  for  the  peace 
of  the  cloister,  must  always  claim  a  right  to  come 
within  the  story  of  France's  capital,  since  it  is  the 
last  resting-place  of  France's  kings.  The  legends  of 
Paris  and  its  saints  ascribe  the  original  foundation  of 
the  abbey  church  to  the  following  story,  which  has 
come  to  be  very  well  known,  concerning  as  it  does  the 
patron  saint  of  France.  Saint  Denis,  who,  as  we  have 
seen,  was  the  first  to  evangelise  in  the  marshes  of 
Lutetia,  suffered  martyrdom  under  the  Valerian  per- 
secutions in  the  third  century,  in  the  city  where  his 
good  work  had  begun;  but  after  his  head  had  been 
struck  off,  the  body,  instead  of  falling  lifeless  at  once, 
rose  up  from  the  block,  took  the  head  in  its  hands, 
and  walked  out  of  the  city  to  the  neighbouring  town 
of  Catulliacum,  where  it  finally  sought  refuge  in  the 
villa  of  one  CatuUa,  a  Roman  lady  of  noble  and  good 
repute,  who  instantly  took  possession  of  her  sainted 

[  263  ] 


CATHEDRAL    CITIES    OF   FRANCE 

charge  and  gave  him  Christian  burial  within  her 
garden.  So  far  is  legend ;  at  any  rate,  a  chapel  was 
erected  over  the  shrine,  and  became,  of  course,  an 
object  of  pilgrimage  for  many  years.  Then  comes  the 
story  of  Dagobert,  the  rebellious  young  prince  who 
sought  sanctuary  in  the  chapel  against  the  wrath  of 
his  father;  and,  inspired  by  a  vision  of  the  saint, 
promised  to  build  a  church  on  the  same  site.  Accord- 
ingly, on  his  accession  to  his  father's  throne,  the 
Abbey  and  Church  of  Saint  Denis  were  founded  in 
about  769.  In  the  following  century  the  Benedictine 
monks  purchased  their  immunity  from  Norman 
invaders  by  large  sums  of  money;  but  this  contract 
seems  to  have  availed  them  little,  since  the  pirates, 
probably  hoping  for  fresh  plunder,  despoiled  the 
monastery  as  they  had  despoiled  Saint-Germain-des- 
Pres.  After  this  the  foundation  fell  into  a  terrible 
state  of  neglect.  Its  abbots  were  fighting  men — not 
necessarily  ecclesiastics,  for  many  nobles  in  those  days 
held  lay  abbacies;  Hugh  Capet,  for  instance,  was 
abbot  of  Saint  Martin  at  Tours — and  not  until  the 
day  of  the  famous  Suger  did  it  recover  anything  like 
its  ancient  prestige.  Suger  was  an  old  pupil  of  the 
Benedictines  at  Saint  Denis,  and  a  fellow-scholar 
the^e  with  the  young  prince  Louis  TEveille,  after- 
wards Louis  VI.,  whose  chief  minister  he  became  in 
later  days.    In  the  days  of  his  prosperity  the  abbot 

[  264  ] 


PARIS   AND   SOME  OF   ITS   CHURCHES 

devoted  himself  to  restoring  and  beautifying  the 
church,  and  left  full  instructions  to  be  carried  out 
by  his  successor,  when  death  prevented  him  from 
finishing  what  had  been  so  nobly  begun.  The  work 
languished  again,  however,  until  the  reign  of  Louis 
IX.,  when  Eudes  de  Clement  and  Matthieu  de  Ven- 
dome  took  up  the  plans  once  more,  and  completed  the 
church  very  much  as  we  now  see  it. 

It  was  at  Saint  Denis  that  was  enacted  the  romance 
of  the  scholar  Pierre  Abelard  and  "  la  tres-sage 
Helois "  of  Villon,  whose  story  is  too  well  known — 
and,  perhaps,  also  too  secular — to  quote  here.  Both 
lie  buried  now  at  Pere-la-Chaise,  their  remains  hav- 
ing been  removed  from  the  monastery  at  Cluny  in 
1791  by  Lenoir,  to  his  collection  of  fragments  and 
old  monuments  spared  from  the  Revolution.  It  was 
after  the  Revolution  that  the  abbey  suffered  more 
terrible  damage  and  desecration  than  ever  invading 
heathens  or  conquering  English  had  worked  there. 
The  Convention,  in  its  haste  to  rid  the  country  of 
every  trace  of  the  hated  monarchy,  must  needs  assail 
dead  kings  and  queens  as  well  as  living  ones.  Conse- 
quently every  tomb  was  ravaged  and  the  dust  of  a 
hundred  kings  lay  mingling  with  the  dust  of  the  com- 
mon ditch.  With  the  restoration  of  the  Bourbons, 
Louis  XVIII.  ordered  also  the  replacement,  as  far 
as  it  was  possible,  of  the  bones  of  his  dead  ancestors; 

[  26s  ] 


CATHEDRAL   CITIES   OF   FRANCE 

and  the  French  kings  sleep  once  again  at  Saint  Denis, 
peaceful  and  undisturbed  as  in  other  years,  though 
a  smoky  veil  hangs  over  their  resting-place  and  the 
roar  of  furnaces  breaks  the  quiet  of  their  ancient 
tombs. 


[  266] 


14  DAY  USE 

^RETUHN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORfiOWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below  , 


-  O  UD 


ppB  1  oim'ww 


UOAN  DE^^ 


-'^^^^^s^-md — 


1.^ i-HitU^ 


M3  L  -eu 


Berke! 


GENERAL  LIBRARY  -  U.C.  BERKELEY 

I 


B0007b7bliM 


